Former rugby star sheds light on mental health through kids books

It can be easy for kids to miss the fact that sports stars are human, and that amongst all the fame and glory, they have to work on their mental health game too.

To help bridge that gap, a retired pro rugby player and dad has picked up writing kids books.

Former Māori All Black and Crusader Tim Bateman had some incredible moments during his sporting run, but said there have been some heavy lows.

He remembered avoiding some exercises with teammates, telling Seven Sharp "I was always really nervous that I wasn't very good at a few things and, you know, just too scared to train those at training... because I thought the guys are gonna see me and think 'man, he's useless'.

"My wife has MS [multiple sclerosis] so her health was up and down, like hugely... so pretty much if you overlay my performance with her health, my performance matched that."

His latest project is a series of four books following fun-loving fruit who are finding their way through big feelings.

One such tale is The Sad Banana, which follows Bowie the Banana learning to turn his frown upside down.

The lesson Bowie learns: the only way to get through the tough times is to find the positives.

The biggest takeaway across all of Bateman's books? We're all trying to navigate big emotions in this gigantic fruit bowl.

Watch the full story in the video above.