Former Wallaby Wendell Sailor on Monday signed with National Rugby League team St George Illawarra after completing a two-year ban for drug use.
The 33-year-old was dealt the ban after after testing positive for cocaine while playing rugby union for the New South Wales Waratahs in 2006.
The signing sees Sailor switch back to rugby league — the code he left in November 2001 to join rugby union.
The former Brisbane Broncos league star thanked St George Illawarra coach Nathan Brown for giving him ”the opportunity to come back and to put things right and to finish on my terms”.
”A lot of times in those two years you have regrets and you just want to move on … there were some dark days there, days when I didn’t think I could probably come back,” he said.
Sailor, who has signed with St George Illawarra until the end of the 2009 NRL season, will play his first rugby league game since the ban ended with the Shellharbour Marlins this weekend.
He refused to say when he could return to the top grade.
Sailor was a top rugby league player before his switch to rugby union.
He played for Queensland in State of Origin rugby league and rugby union in the Super 12 and Super 14 competition and for Australia in both codes.
Sailor scored 12 tries in 16 rugby league Tests and 13 tries in 37 internationals with the Wallabies. – Sapa-AFP