Canberra Raiders star John Bateman bends his back to help a mate out

Now he's doing it off it as well - well as much as anyone can as they recover from shoulder surgery.

Bateman picked up the tools on Tuesday as several Raiders have gone to work in the coronavirus-induced NRL shutdown.

While Bateman was happy to help out a mate and doing some manual labour, he was less than impressed with the work being done at NRL head office.

He labelled it disappointing that it took the COVID-9 pandemic to reveal problems in the way the game was being run.

Bateman has been continuing the rehabilitation on his shoulder at home and was expected to be back playing by the end of April.

But with the NRL suspended indefinitely and Australia in lockdown - with people only allowed to leave their house out of necessity - Bateman was looking for to keep active.

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So he packed his lunch and did his first day of labouring on Tuesday.

"Not officially on the tools, but I've come to do a little bit of work today for one of my mates, just helping him out," Bateman said.

"He's just stripping some roofs and he's throwing some rubbish down. I just clean up. It's not much. I can't do much. I've got my shoulder injury.

"I can't do much. I don't want to risk it. I'm still hopeful of the season getting back underway and I'll be back playing. It's just helping out. I'm not coming out to try and get money."

He's not the only Raider trying to keep himself busy with Elliott Whitehead and Jack Murchie also getting out in the workforce.

"I think Elliott's on a farm somewhere in Canberra. I'm not too sure what's going down. I just keep seeing videos of cows," Bateman said.

"And Jacko said he's got a little bit of work on Monday. It's just keeping us occupied. There's a lot worse off people than us at the moment."

Having travelled halfway around the world to test himself in the best competition in the world, Bateman was left disappointed with the state of the game.

He felt if something claimed to be "a billion-dollar game" then it shouldn't be at risk of falling over at the first sign of trouble.

The England international especially felt for the young players in the game, who might not have any savings to fall back on.

His injury also brought home how vulnerable NRL players were if the league collapsed and they couldn't work for any length of time.

"The NRL have said that they'll pay us two months wages and from there you don't know. It's disappointing to see that to be honest," Bateman said.

"The game that supposedly claims to be a billion-dollar game and the money they've got in it.

"Obviously everyone in the world is in the same position, but everyone else in the world the boss doesn't claim that it's billion dollar and it turns out that it's not being run right.

"It should have never come to this. It's scary times. There's kids in a lot worse positions and they'll have to find a job. In this day and age it's not easy to just click your fingers and get a job is it."

Bateman's also had to deal with being on the other side of the world to his daughter Millie.

He admitted his first thought as soon as the NRL shut down was to jump on a plane and get home.

But the travel restrictions and quarantine requirements meant that posed plenty of problems of their own.

He said Millie was struggling - she's already been stuck inside for two weeks with the COVID-19 virus arriving in England ahead of Australia.

"I've had a few phone calls with her now. We both had a little cry with each other to be fair. It's just hard," Bateman said.

"It's one of those times when you want to be with your family. But you can't do much about it.

"She's supposed to be due [to arrive in Canberra] next Friday as well. That probably gets a little bit harder closer to the time when she's supposed to be due here.

"I've been looking forward to it for the last four months."

Bateman had one final message for "the Canberra people and people around the world".

"I just want to tell everyone to stay safe, look after yourselves and loved ones, and we will all get through this together."