Australia coach Justin Langer paid a secret visit to former captain Tim Paine to offer his support after the controversial wicketkeeper took a break from the sport following the sexting scandal.

Sources confirmed Langer made the decision in recent days to go and see Paine face-to-face and to offer his support to the 36-year-old.

Langer is expected to fly back to Brisbane before the first Ashes Test against England starting December 8 in Brisbane.

“JL (Justin Langer) told me he’s devastated. He was pretty firm that he wanted me to continue as captain, and again, once I explained to him the reasons that I thought resigning was the best thing to do, he was with me all the way,” Paine said in a recent interview with Hamish McLachlan for News Corp.

Paine has stepped away from cricket for an “indefinite mental health break”, leaving Australia’s Ashes preparations up in the air a week after the wicketkeeper’s resignation from the captaincy.

Paine, replaced as captain by Pat Cummins on Friday, was due to play for Tasmania in a domestic match in Hobart in the lead up to the Ashes opener in Brisbane on Dec. 8, but is now unavailable for the “foreseeable future”, the state’s cricket association said.

Speculation over Paine’s place in the test team has been rife since he resigned over revelations he had been investigated for sending sexually explicit text messages to a female former Cricket Tasmania (CT) staffer four years ago.