Michael Carrick: ‘I wanted to leave England squad at World Cup 2010 because of depression’

Michael Carrick has revealed he suffered from depression after Manchester United’s Champions League final defeat to Barcelona in 2009.

The midfielder, who made 464 appearances for United before joining Jose Mourinho’s coaching staff over the summer, says his depression left him longing for home during the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

“It was my dream to be at a World Cup but the truth is I didn’t want to be there,” he told the Times. “I wanted to be at home.”

Barcelona won the 2009 Champions League final by a 2-0 scoreline, and Carrick believes he was at fault for the La Liga giants’ first goal after giving the ball away.

The 37-year-old has now spoken of how he couldn’t shrug off the bad feeling after the Barcelona defeat like he had been able to in the past.

“I beat myself up over that goal,” Carrick said. “I kept asking myself: ‘Why did I do that?’ And then it snowballed from there. It was a tough year after that. It lingered for a long time.

“I had won the Champions League the year before, but that was totally irrelevant. It felt like I was depressed. I was really down. I imagine that is what depression is.

“I describe it as depression because it wasn’t a one-off thing. I felt bad or terrible after some games, but then you get over it in the next couple of days, but that one I just couldn’t shrug off. It was a strange feeling.”

Mental health comes to the forefront

Danny Rose revealed his own battle with mental health issues earlier this year

Carrick joins Aaron Lennon and Danny Rose in a string of English players to recently speak openly about battling mental health issues.

The former Tottenham and West Ham midfielder has admitted his teammates and family didn’t know the details of his struggles at the time.

He said: “I kept it to myself most of the time. Even my family didn’t know the full extent of it.

“It’s not something that’s really spoken about in football. I have not spoken about it before. For the lads that I have played with that are reading this, this will be the first time that they know [about the depression]. They wouldn’t know.”

Carrick won five Premier League titles, an FA Cup and the Champions League during a hugely successful club career.

The post Michael Carrick: ‘I wanted to leave England squad at World Cup 2010 because of depression’ appeared first on Squawka News.

From Squawka NewsSquawka News https://ift.tt/2y9u2ta