Wallabies coach Michael Cheika wants to help beleaguered Queensland Reds stars Karmichael Hunt and Quade Cooper.
Cooper has been dropped from the Reds squad by new coach Brad Thorn and Hunt has voluntarily stood down from all Reds training until his second court date on February 19 following his arrest late last year.
The 30-year-old, who won his first six Test caps last year, was initially charged with two counts of possessing dangerous drugs and one count of contravening a police direction.
Cheika has spoken to Hunt and asked on Friday how the player was holding up, said: “I think he’d be personally down and let himself down in that situation.
“But he’s not an evil person that’s for sure.
“He’s a good bloke, he made a mistake in the past.
“I think now we’ll talk with the Reds, see where we’re at going forward and work together with Karmichael to see where we’re going to go from here …”
Cheika, who hasn’t selected Cooper since last June, wasn’t comfortable with the 70-Test playmaker’s demotion but said Thorn was entitled to his decision and had spoken to him about it.
“My challenge is to try to get him into a place where I can still have him as an option somewhere along the line to be selected,” said Cheika, who has spoken to Cooper.
“If that’s either got to be through him finding a place to play here or to play somewhere else.
“He qualifies with the 60-cap rule,(which makes him eligible for Test selection while playing overseas) but we’ll talk with Queensland and we’ll see where we go.”
Cheika said he had enjoyed his early meetings with new Rugby Australia CEO Raelene Castle.
“The talks we’ve had have been interesting, inspiring, street smart,” Cheika said.
Champion backrower David Pocock said on Friday he was making good progress from recent knee surgery and hoped to resume running in the next couple of weeks.
“The goal is to get back as soon as I can,’ Pocock said.