Nathan Cleary: ‘It’s been refreshing to just walk around like a regular person’

Penrith’s Kangaroos superstar is in England for the World Club Challenge. He talks fame, the Panthers and using his voice

“It’s been very refreshing, actually, to just walk around like a regular person,” Nathan Cleary says as a drab February morning in Manchester becomes something different to the revered Australian. It might feel to the rest of us that we’re locked in an endless English winter but, for the folk hero of the Penrith Panthers who is described by many as the best rugby league player in the world, the grey anonymity feels uplifting.

“Obviously I’m in a very privileged position back home, with a lot of interest, but it’s nice to be here,” he continues. “It’s such a refreshing feeling.”