England rugby coach Eddie Jones has said sorry for a bizarre comment at a press conference ahead of Sunday's Six Nations showdown with Ireland.
Jones was asked by a reporter about social media and the mental health of his players in the wake of Caroline Flack's death.
He gave a proper answer, saying that "obviously, I read and listened to some stuff on the girl and feel sorry for her family and thoughts are with the family. In terms of our players, we try to take a balanced approach. Obviously, social media is an important part of today's society. For some players, it's massively important, for other players it's not important, so again it's more of an individual way of looking after each player as well as we can."
He was then asked by the same reporter if he still meditated. Jones spoke last summer about mindfulness and doing breathing exercises early in the morning:
"I don't think I have ever spoken about meditation, you must be thinking about someone else. Maybe another half-Asian person. Maybe we all look the same."
An English Rugby Football Union spokesperson said:
“Eddie made an off-the-cuff comment during the press conference which was not intended to cause any offence. He has subsequently spoken to the journalist privately explaining this and apologised, which was accepted.”
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