Bellamy opens up on mental struggles

CRAIG BELLAMY says he has been receiving treatment for manic depression for three years. The former Wales forward has revealed he first suffered mental problems during his playing career — and injuries made his condition so bad he wanted to quit football. Bellamy, who had a spell at Celtic, said: ‘For the last three or four years, I’ve been diagnosed with depression, manic depression. I can’t get away from that. I’ve been medicated for three years. ‘I’ve had ridiculous highs and massive lows (during my career). The injuries were so, so difficult to try to overcome. I felt tortured. ‘This wasn’t what I expected my football career to be like. During my career, my depression was worse, way worse, the emotional side. ‘I’d come home and wouldn’t speak for three days. I had a wife and young family but I literally wouldn’t talk. I would shut myself away in a room and then I would go to bed on my own. ‘That was the only way I could deal with the depression.’ Bellamy says he even rejected interest from Manchester United while at Newcastle, given his issues with injury. ‘I was struggling with tendonitis in both knees and just wanted my career to be over,’ he told Sky Sports. ‘Newcastle had invested heavily in me and I felt I couldn’t justify it. I remember Manchester United were interested in me as well that summer — but I knew I couldn’t go there. ‘I knew I was in no position to compete with the likes of the players they had there. Having to deal with that was the toughest time during my career.’ Bellamy is now a youth coach at Anderlecht, the club Vincent Kompany is at. He left his role as Cardiff Under-18s coach last year after several academy players made allegations of bullying against him. When a club investigation later found players had been subjected to ‘an unacceptable coaching environment’, Bellamy said: ‘If I inadvertently offended anyone, then I am truly sorry.’