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Joe Marler may have called time on his England career but the limelight still beckons – with reality TV now in his sights.
The Harlequins prop announced his retirement from the international game last weekend after earning 95 caps and playing in three World Cups over a 12-year career.
The 34-year-old will see out the remainder of the season with his club but is now looking ahead.
Despite anticipating people would “mock the fact I’ve got no dance moves” and he would “be really bad at anything in confined spaces because I’m claustrophobic”, he admits programmes such as ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ and ‘I’m a Celebrity… Get Out Me Out of Here’ would appeal.
Marler told the Daily Mail: “Would I do that stuff? Yeah, but it’s not a career is it?
“I’d do it as a fan of those shows and I’d do it for the desire I have to experience those things.
“I’d love to go in the jungle. I’m a Celeb. That’d be such great fun.”
Marler’s decision to retire came after he recently withdrew from England’s squad for their autumn internationals for personal reasons.
My daughter Maggie had been crying her eyes out
Joe Marler
He says it was something he had considered for some time and was prompted by how upset his daughter was about the amount of time he was spending away from home.
“It was sad to admit,” said Marler, who was also in the headlines recently after making controversial comments about New Zealand’s haka.
“How long can you flog a dead horse? It wasn’t a knee-jerk thing.
“My daughter Maggie had been crying her eyes out about me leaving for matches, asking, ‘Why do you have to keep going away?’”
England coach Steve Borthwick asked Marler to stay on and play “one more game” alongside fellow front-rower and long-time team-mate Dan Cole against South Africa.
“There was three per cent of me in that moment that thought, ‘Maybe’, but I’d made up my mind,” Marler said.
He admits breaking the news to his friend Cole was emotional.
He said: “I just hugged him and started crying in his arms. That was the outpouring of emotion, the weight of it had just gone. I knew it was the right choice but there was a sadness. That was it.”
