Danny Murphy and the drama of retirement: “I drank, took drugs and gambled, many don’t realize …”

Not everyone is ready to face what comes when they hang up their boots. To tell it is Danny Murphy, former Liverpool and England international, who revealed how he had several problems …

The retirement is the moment in the life of a football player who marks an indelible caesura. There is a before and an after and not everyone is ready to face what comes when they hang up their boots. To tell it is Danny Murphy, formerly of Liverpool, Tottenham and with ten appearances in the English national team. In an open-hearted confession to the DailyMailago the former midfielder told some time ago how the withdrawal was suddenly a huge problem.

“I enjoyed it for the first two years after I retired in 2013: I played golf, appeared on TV and went on vacation with my family. But what happened next hit me in full, like a hammer blow. When I realized that I would no longer play football in my life and that I had lost most of my savings, I fell into depression, something I didn’t want to realize at the time. During that horrible time, which lasted a year , I did nothing but drink, do drugs and gamble. My marriage fell apart, I had a fight with my family and friends and I was isolated. And so I started dating more, continuing to drinking and gambling. What were supposed to be activities to get me in touch with people actually isolated me even more. And obviously the problems I was trying to forget came back even more pressing the next morning. I needed to talk of professio nisti and in a certain sense I even consider myself lucky: I know that many other former footballers have had these problems for years, some have even attempted suicide. ” Something not easy to reveal, but that Murphy wanted to explain.

Adding also that other kinds of problems arise. “Leaving football also deprives you of the safety net you always had. When you are a Liverpool, Tottenham, national team player, you have a lot of people around who can help you. Is anyone sick at home? The club sends you a message. Doctor. Do you need tickets to go to a concert? The prosecutor will take care of it. Some footballers have people who also do racing such as buying a car or booking holidays. When you leave football you are much less able than someone from the your age to face the normal things that happen in life, because up until that moment you have been privileged. And then when you are a footballer the day is organized by others. You know when you have to train, when you have to play, what you have to wear, what you have to eat. Waking up suddenly in the morning and having to find something to keep you busy and motivate you is not easy. And it is good that those who retire know these things in advance ” . Who knows, maybe someone will think about it now …