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In unexpected news, former NRL player Israel Folau has shown support on social media for former NRL player Kane Evans after Evans came out as gay during an interview on Channel Nine鈥檚 100% Footy.

Evans has been flooded with praise for his brave stance, including former NRL player and out gay man Ian Roberts, 聽NRL chief executive Andrew Abdo, Andrew Johns, and Magda Szubanski.

鈥淭o come out and tell the world, especially the rugby league world, it鈥檚 incredibly strong,鈥� Johns told聽Channel Nine. 鈥淭here鈥檚 going to be so much love for him in the rugby league 鈥� he鈥檚 going to save a lot of lives.鈥�

Evans recently 鈥淣o weapon formed against me shall prosper. I love and accept who I am. Thank you God. Sa liu o koya.鈥�

One of the respondents was Folau, who surprisingly posted two love heart emojis. It’s not much, but it doesn’t match with Folau’s previous high-profile homophobia.

 

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Israel Folau is an Australian professional rugby union player and former rugby league and Australian rules football athlete, known as one of the few elite sportspeople to compete at the top level across three football codes, and also for multiple scandals relating to clashes between his faith and homophobic statements.

Folau has a long history of anti-gay statements, which eventually led to him , 聽following an Instagram post in which he proclaimed hell awaits 鈥渄runks, homosexuals, adulterers, liars, fornicators, thieves, atheists and idolaters鈥�.

Rugby Australia made a statement at the time, saying: 鈥淲hilst Israel is entitled to his religious beliefs, the way in which he has expressed these beliefs is inconsistent with the values of the sport. We want to make it clear that he does not speak for the game with his recent social media posts.

鈥淚srael has failed to understand that the expectation of him as a Rugby Australia and NSW Waratahs employee is that he cannot share material on social media that condemns, vilifies or discriminates against people on the basis of their sexuality.鈥�

It was the second time the NSW Waratahs player had used social media as a platform to disseminate homophobic sentiments, following a series of posts last year, including one which stated that God鈥檚 plan for gay people was “HELL… Unless they repent of their sins and turn to God.鈥�

I love and respect all people for who they are and their opinions. but personally, I will not support gay marriage.鉁屸潳馃檹

鈥� Israel Folau (@IzzyFolau)

Folau, who spoke out against same-sex marriage after the , previously said he was聽聽if the situation became untenable due to his Christian beliefs.

This comes after he was, weirdly, on the cover of a 2014 edition of Star Observer, later blocking our publication on all social media.

Folau鈥檚 latest post comes at a time when he is .