Warriors veteran Adam Blair has reflected on the photo that went viral online of his youngest son from the day the team left Auckland, admitting it was “a tough day”.
The photo of an upset Taika Blair hugging his dad at the airport was shared widely online and came to represent the sacrifice the Warriors were making by leaving New Zealand to re-start the NRL season amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
A month on, Blair said it was hard being away from his wife and two boys.
“It was a tough day I’ll be honest,” he said.
“Again, I think the whole family was a little emotional that day, the little one wasn’t emotional until he saw everyone else emotional and started crying and being upset.”
“It’s hard, I’ve always been a family man and it’s always hard to leave your family behind for an unknown period of time, or even five months.”
“I’m used to going away for six weeks but not five months, that’s hard enough as it is but I’m very lucky with my wife that she makes the ultimate sacrifice for our family every time I’m away.
Blair said he had been avoiding social media and focussing on training since arriving in Australia.
“It was a hard thing, I nearly posted it (the photo) up myself before we left but you guys [the media] will get hold of it like you have and speak about,” he said.
“I stayed away from social media for about a month, head down bum up and try to work hard because we’re in a pretty unique situation at the moment.”
“We give ourselves every chance of having a good crack at this competition, we’ve all made sacrifices including myself.”
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