'I'm out': Mason Cox turns his back on 'concerning' America

US-born AFL star Mason Cox has taken one look at the social distancing protests in his home country and decided he would be better off staying in Australia.

The Collingwood forward, who made his AFL debut on ANZAC Day in 2016 after arriving at the club in 2014, posted a video to his Twitter account on Wednesday titled ‘My thoughts on what is happening back home in the US’.

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Angry American residents have defied stay-at-home orders, which are largely similar in nature to the social distancing measures in place across Australia, filling the streets to protest the steps taken to reduce to the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19).

Despite the country topping 840,000 confirmed cases of the virus, resulting in more than 46,000 deaths, many have taken to the streets and gathered in groups to protest what they see as their freedom of movement being restricted.

In his video, Cox watches a video of one of these protests in an effort to try and understand where his countrymen are coming from.

“Alright well it’s been a long time since I’ve been back to the States but I did some googling just to figure out, you know, what’s going on at this time and this is what I came up with,” Cox says.

After the first clip, which shows protestors holding signs with ‘social distancing = communism’ and ‘COVID-19 is a lie’ emblazoned on them, Cox was concerned but willing to hear things out.

“Ok obviously concerning but maybe they have some kind of reasoning, let’s hear what they think about the signs behind them,” he said.

When the clip continued, another protester rejects a question about the scientific reasons for staying indoors, saying ‘I don’t believe your science, because I believe my God.’

“interesting to say the least, but maybe not everyone has the same opinion, let’s try someone else,” Cox says, before a similar clip is shown.

“Ok, whatever. To each their own. But at least they're protesting peacefully, right?”

Cox’s clip then shows several citizens armed with rifles patrolling the streets in an armoured truck, using a megaphone to demand the reopening of the city.

This was the last straw for the Magpies cult hero, who declared he was an Aussie for the foreseeable future.

“Well after seeing that I don’t know that I’m ever going to leave Australia again. US, it’s been real but I’m out,” he says to end the video.

Aussie fans throw support behind Mason Cox

Cox won a mixture of praise from fans and support from American ex-pats also stuck in Australia amid global restrictions on international travel.

Plenty flooded the replies to Cox’s tweet, which was viewed more than 50,000 times.

“Love your take on it, assimilation complete,” one fan wrote, while another said “congrats on the citizenship Mason”.

Another fan added a story about her US-born husband, who had come to the same conclusion as the Collingwood star.