Wood eager to put personal troubles behind him

Paul Wood is eager to put his personal troubles behind him and focus on the rapidly approaching Super League season.

With the 2013 campaign just weeks away, Wood admitted he has endured an eventful off season but is itching to get back onto the field.

When the regular season does resume, the Wigan-born prop knows he may well be the target of chants from opposition fans, but he won’t let that bother him.

He said: “It’s been an eventful few months, a bit of a rollercoaster I suppose. 

“I’ve had some stick and I’m used to it, I’ve been avoiding twitter for the last few weeks and I heard people singing songs at the Widnes game but it’s nothing unusual, you’re going to get stick and you’ve got to deal with it. It’s only a song it’s not going to hurt me. 

“I’ve always been fortunate through my career I’ve never really got any stick from the opposition fans but you just deal with it, you have to with stuff like that and any opportunity opposition fans get they’re going to give it to you. 

The Wolves forward has experienced a circus of media attention since news about his ruptured testicle and personal life broke, but having kept off social media sites Wood insisted the attention hasn’t got to him.

“The spotlight hasn’t really bothered me that much, I’m just glad it happened during the off season, it’s kept me occupied because I didn’t really have anything else to do. 

“I’ve not deleted my twitter account I just haven’t been on. If you want to look for insults then you can find them quite easily and if you don’t want to look at them you don’t have to so I’ve just chosen not to go on. 

“I just need the season to kick off to get some normality back and get into a routine, I’m looking forward to it, it should be a big year for us, we’ve been training really well and all of the lads can’t wait for it. When I’m at rugby I think about nothing else and I guess rugby has been the saviour for a lot of people I think, they can just forget about all the troubles. It’s good when all the staff and all of your teammates are behind you supporting you.”

Wood also revealed his team mates have kept relatively quiet on the situation whilst Tony Smith has offered him his support if he needs it.

“Tony’s been good with me; he just said make sure you perform on the field and I’ll be happy with you. So long as your personal life doesn’t affect your rugby I’ll be happy with you. I’m getting paid to play rugby and train hard and that’s what I’m doing.”

Warrington host Castleford Tigers in their first Super League game on Sunday 3rd February.