Centre no longer haunted by his past and is looking forward to fatherhood, but only after Friday’s showdown with St Helens
The darkest times will always serve as a reminder for Zak Hardaker about where he went wrong, but these days he has more reasons to look to the future. It was perhaps inevitable that when Hardaker reached his first Grand Final since the failed drugs test on the eve of the 2017 final the conversation would lead to the events of three years ago, when he tested positive for cocaine just before Castleford made their first appearance at Old Trafford.
“No, absolutely not – I tried to vanish abroad as soon as news of the positive test came through,” he says when asked if he watched the Grand Final as Castleford fell to defeat without him against his former club Leeds.