Rose wins us over with his depression confession
The World Cup starts on Thursday, but in my mind one England player has already won: the Spurs defender Danny Rose. In an astonishingly forthright interview this week, Rose spoke of his battle with depression, his mother’s experience of racist abuse and the suicide of his uncle.
He said that England had been his salvation from mental health issues, and that he felt like the luckiest player on the squad.
“It’s no secret that I’ve been through a testing time at Tottenham,” said the 27-year-old, who has been injured. “It led to me seeing a psychologist and I was diagnosed with depression, which nobody knows about. I haven’t told my mum and dad, and they’re probably going to be really angry reading this, but I’ve kept it to myself until now.”
It’s sad that Rose is one of the few footballers to have spoken openly about mental illness; it is unforgivable that, in the year 2018, he is still having to speak out about racism.
Indeed, with iphones, social media and newfangled video doorbells that feature facial recognition, it would be easy to think that we live in enlightened times. As Danny Rose has shown this week, nothing could be further from the truth.