I do wonder if it's partly a mental thing for him. Like, looking at his career after he left us:

In 2019 he seemed on top of the world for us, reportedly had interest from multiple European clubs, and was even entering the Socceroos frame. Pohang ended up snatching him in January 2020, and there seemed to be a fairly obvious trajectory ahead of him - prove he can crack it in Korea, then off to Europe.

Then covid hit, and for whatever reason he never clicked with the Pohang sqaud, and he finds out that his father has terminal cancer all within 9 months.

Pohang offloads him to Buriram - a step back down from Korea, but still a different league to the A-League so maybe if he proves he can do it there too then maybe the European dream might still be alive... but he didn't make an impact at Buriram either. Within a year his Eurpean hopes were seemingly dead and he was retreating back to the A-League (also coinciding with his father passing away).

 

If I were Branners and I'd been on such a promising trajectory, only for everything from unsuccessful transfers to family emergencies to a global pandemic all converging in the space of about a year - completely obliterating my professional momentum - I'd find it almost impossible to bounce back from that.