da poker： After the shocking and untimely death of Gary Speed, the footballing world was reminded just how precious life can be, and just how bigger outpouring of grief can come from collective hurt.
da esport bet： Since Speed’s death, his family and close friends have failed to articulate both the pain this has caused them and how to make any sense of what happened. Robbie Savage simply asked ‘Why, Why, Why?’ Leaving the question of exactly what drove Speed to commit suicide and leave both a family and public who adored him so much.
The simple answer seems to be that he suffered from depression and finally snapped, yet his wife and friends say there was no evidence of such a thing. The mind it seems is a fragile thing, and no one can really know the complex nature of our inner most thoughts and feelings.
On paper it seemed Speed had it all to live for – having a successful playing career and now revitalising the Wales national side, not to mention being stable financially and a family who adored him. Yet sufferers from Mental Illness will know that everything can seemingly be fine, yet a dark cloud follows you around.
German keeper Robert Enke has been another high profile casualty of depression in football, and as with Speed took his own life due to the illness, yet that was two years ago and seemingly very little has been done since then to raise the issue of mental illness in football.
It appears to be one of the very last taboos in the game, and following Speed’s death the PFA sent out booklets to ex professionals on how to spot and deal with the illness. Yet current players also suffer from the disease and feel the need to keep it under wraps – is it because football views mental health in a different way to physical illness?
If a player broke his leg, everyone would know and want to be updated on each step of the recovery – no player ever reports feeling low or depressed as a reason for taking time out – in any other profession in the world this is considered an entirely valid reason to take leave. In football it seems that the only time the spotlight is raised on the subject is when it is all too late.
Saying that, the work of the Sporting Chance clinic has got to be mentioned here, which does excellent work for footballers with a range of issues and blasts Alan Hansen’s claim that there is ‘no support network for footballers’ out of the water.
Within 72 hours of Speed’s death, the clinic received 10 calls from current footballers asking for help, showing that there is a place for them to go should they need to.
The issue does not seem to be finding help dealing with the problem once a player asks for help, it is the getting them to ask for help part that seems to be the problem here, with the stigma of admitting a problem seemingly too much for players.
It is this then that needs to be tackled, and the spotlight that has shone so harshly on suicide and depression since Speed’s death cannot be allowed to peter away. Yes, with regards to Gary Speed his family should be allowed to grieve in peace, yet the issue as a whole must begin to be tackled and the stigma of admitting you have a mental health issue can slowly be removed. Should football make the tragic mistake of continuing like normal after a brief period of mourning, in the not so distant future this heart breaking scenario will be repeated over and over again until something is finally done.
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