Keegan Hirst, the hunky 27 year old British Rugby League player who came out last August in an interview with GuysLikeU.com, has said that he is opposed to the outing gay athletes.

“I don’t think it’s fair to try and force it. A person, whoever they are, can only come out when they want to. They’ll feel the same as anybody else does before they come out. But if a regular guy has 100 people to come out to, to be possibly rejected by, footballers have 50,000 people who they feel may reject them. I think only when they’re totally comfortable with their situation will you get a footballer who publicly comes out,” he said.

Hirst, a father of two, in the interview also talked about being a gay father of two and how his love life comes second to being a dad.

“She’s aware,” Hirst said of his 7-year-old daughter’s knowledge of his sexuality. “It doesn’t really affect the kids, so I don’t need to bang on about it to them. But yes, they’re aware. My son is too young to understand so I guess he’ll just grow up and not know any different.”