The faith behind the fasting: Guler balancing rugby league and Ramadan

Discipline, sacrifice and mental toughness are all important attributes NRL players work towards every day and for the month of March, these practices are front of mind for Emre Guler.

Ramdan has always been an important time of the year for the Guler family, who are of Turkish descent, and the 26-year-old Raiders forward ensures he too finds days to fast around his training and game day schedule.

Guler says that Ramadan and life as a professional athlete comes with many challenges but he hopes to continue working towards a complete fast and finds inspiration through former players such as Sonny Bill Williams and Hazem El Masri.

“I only do it on the days off because it's pretty hard on our big days and game days,” Guler told jetwinvip.com.

“It can get complicated if you’re travelling, so I just try to manage it and do the best I can with the situation I’m in.

“If I can handle what I’m doing now, then I’d like to eventually do a day of training with it and build my way up but I think I’ll have to get used to it a bit more before I take it to that next step.

“I have massive respect for those guys that have played through it and done it at 100 per cent. That's, huge and it makes me want to try and do it to that level.

“I think those guys are just so mentally tough to be able to do that and have shown the way for younger lads coming through like myself.”

Players across the NRL will celebrate their unique cultures and backgrounds throughout Multicultural Round but for Guler, faith, family and sacrifice is already his focus across the month of March.

“It’s definitely more of a mental thing for me, challenging myself and seeing what I can go without for a bit,” he said.

“I think there's a lot of things we've got to sacrifice and hold back from as footy players and I think you can definitely relate it to a lot of things other than footy as well.

“I think about my family and how my parents and siblings all sacrificed something for me with time and their own lives and I probably can't repay them but I try to do my best and let them know that I'm grateful for everything they've done.”

The only other NRL player besides Wests Tigers halfback Aidan Sezer to be flying the tag for Turkey this weekend, the 84-game Raider said his family in Western Sydney will be front of mind when he runs out onto Apollo Projects Stadium to face the Warriors on Friday.

“Both of my parents, all of their families are overseas so it’s just my immediate family in Australia and we’re pretty close,” he said.

“They’ve own kebab shops in Sydney. So we're big foodies and very lucky, always surrounded by food.

“All of my family are fasting as well at the moment and it’s probably more challenging for them working in the fast food industry, so everyone’s got different challenges.

“Two Turkish players in the whole NRL is a very small number among so many players so it’s pretty special to be able to represent my culture and do my family proud this weekend.”