"Every other player in the history of the game, once retired, will remove it and then never put it back in again. They generally deem it unnecessary to ever wear it again."
When the spotlight recently turned in the direction of Willie Mason due to revelations that his hard partying may have led to the collapse of a company, it became apparent that an even more unfortunate set of events had transpired.
It became blindingly clear that the nation had forgotten to inform Big Willie that, once your professional NRL career ends, you can remove your mouth guard.
Serge Grubber, Mason's manager, has indicated that he feels responsible for the unfolding optical tragedy.
"Yeah I've really stuffed up. He needed my guidance and I wasn't there for him. And honestly, I think he'll blame me if he ever finds out."
This is not the first big mistake by Mr Grubber. He also managed the careers of Pat Cash and Dawn Fraser. In a similar horrible omission, he tells us that he forgot to inform those two supreme athletes of some important details of retired life.
"Yeah bloody hell. I forgot to inform Cash and Fraser that you can stop doing press conferences once you retire. You can just shut the fuck up and live a private life. By the time I realised that they weren't aware, it was too late. So I've just let them go on their merry way."
Similarly, Grubber now feels that too much time has passed, and Willie will be too mortified if he is now informed of his faux pas.
So expect that big beautiful mouth guard to feature prominently for some time to come.