Latrell Mitchell's mother reveals personal tragedy surrounding young star after Origin axing
Axed Blues star Latrell Mitchell's mother has revealed the personal tragedy that has resulted in the youngster suffering a dip of form in the lead-up to Origin I.
Mitchell was sensationally dumped from the team for Game Two in Perth and his mother, Patricia Goolagong, revealed that he has been dealing with the deaths of two aunties, a cousin, and a great uncle.
"Latrell has been dealing with this the best that he can," Goolagong told Nine News in a statement.
"But this will affect any young person as you could imagine."
The 22-year-old Roosters star has also been affected by his brother Lionel having to face court in August after he was charged with assault for an incident in April.
Mitchell was well below his best as the Blues got ambushed at Suncorp Stadium in Game One AAP
The incident occurred at the Old Bar Tavern, where according to Goolagong, the two Mitchell brothers were "racially abused all night".
"This has really affected Latrell," she said.
"He has never had to deal with anything like this."
Despite his axing from the side, Mitchell's club and representative captain Boyd Cordner backed the star centre to bounce back.
"He probably would be hurting there's no doubt about that, but knowing Latrell, he'll use that as motivation to get back in the team as quick as he can," Cordner told Nine News.
Blues coach Brad Fittler said the decision to drop Mitchell was the hardest he's had to make in his coaching career AAP
"It's definitely not the end of his (representative) career."
After announcing his squad on Sunday night, Blues coach Brad Fittler called the decision to drop Mitchell as the "hardest thing" he's had to do as a coach.
"The great thing was he scored a couple of tries today and hopefully he gets his smile and swagger back," Fittler told reporters.
"We had expectations at Suncorp and he didn't meet those expectations. Latrell is a bit of a consequence of that.
"His week was fantastic, it was nothing to do with off the field, it was purely on the field."
