‘I lost one of my friends to suicide… you see a lot of depression among sport stars’
EXCLUSIVE: ROBERT SNODGRASS
ROBERT Snodgrass speaks candidly about the suicide of his friend, the dangers of depression, his mum’s struggle with serious illness, social media haters wishing him harm and perhaps more pointed criticism from his chairman’s son.
This is something of a surprise coming from a player who is generally considered a flighty, mercurial talent and a bit of a dressing-room joker.
We were talking at the launch of West Ham’s impressive and potentially far-reaching Players’ Project, which aims to use the power of sport to educate and inspire people in the local community by delivering life-changing experiences.
The entire squad have signed up to the scheme, with Snodgrass focusing specifically on helping those with physical disabilities. But it is also an opportunity to discuss all those less fortunate than ourselves.
A number of Snodgrass’s posts on social media are aimed at raising awareness of mental health issues, including suicide, and there is a very personal reason why.
Two years ago, a player who came through the youth system with him at Livingston, Chris Mitchell, took his own life. His career had been ended by surgical complications following a back injury.
“You don’t realise how much depression is going on around you, how much suicide,” says playmaker Snodgrass, 31. “I lost one of my friends, Chris Mitchell.
“You see a lot of depression among injured sports stars who would rather be reaching their goals or at least doing what they love doing. Luckily, I have a thing inside me that I wake up and I am happy every day. But boys and girls want to live the dream and are looking at everything you do on a day-to-day basis.
“If these kids are suffering, it is important when they see their heroes making it clear there is a lot of depression and suicide all over the world.”
Yet many people assume that Snodgrass’s remarkable resilience to negativity is a sign he does not care.
Just last week, for example, former international Kris Commons suggested Snodgrass missed Scotland games because “he just doesn’t fancy turning up,” rather than because of an ankle injury.
The Sky Sports Scottish football pundit later apologised but part of the problem north of the border is that Snodgrass had missed out on international squads before.
Having not played over the entire summer, many construed it as a lack of commitment despite a genuine reason
The Scotland call coincided with my mum being so ill
for his absence: he was using the time to nurse his mum Irene back from a stroke.
“My mum has had heart attacks, a stroke, and it all coincided with me being called up for Scotland so the timing was not good,” says Snodgrass with typical understatement.
“Thankfully, she is a great woman. Even now I have to tell the kids to take it easy. She is always out there determined to be part of the fun.
“I love her with every part of my body. People speak about money, but when she was younger, she was always trying her best to raise us in the right way.” At the same time, Snodgrass describes dad Steven as “his best mate” and the “funniest man” he knows.
Humour is a survival mechanism, because there was not too much to laugh about growing up in Glasgow. Even when the three Snodgrass boys were given some wood and some scaffolding netting by kind-hearted workmen, they returned the next day to find the goal they had lovingly built burned to the ground.
“We used to play on gravel so we were always coming back with thirddegree burns all over but it was some of the best days of my life,” he says.
It was another famous Scot, Bill Shankly, who claimed football was more important than “life or death”; Snodgrass goes so far as to say that football gives life meaning.
“Football keeps me driven every day and that takes me on to be the best dad, son and friend,” he said. The darkest days, Snodgrass admits, came when he was out of the game for 15 months with a dislocated kneecap at Hull City. That is why, when in February Sheffield Wednesday fans were wishing him “a broken leg” on social media, it seemed particularly cruel.
“You get some great people on there but also sad ones and evil ones,” says Snodgrass. “Every single emotion – and Twitter is the way to vent that. I just try to have a bit of light banter.”
He sees the abuse as a sign things are going well – a typical Snodgrass glass-half-full assessment. To be fair, at the moment, they are. Ahead of the visit of the manager’s old club Manchester City on Saturday, Manuel Pellegrini has West Ham playing more open football with Snodgrass very much at the heart of it.
That is a far cry from when he first arrived at the club, Slaven Bilic paying £10.2million for his services without knowing, according to the player himself, his best position.
Subsequently, Snodgrass went on loan to Aston Villa but things were not helped last year when co-owner David Sullivan tweeted: “My kids begged me not to sign Snodgrass.”
Jack Sullivan is an unmissable figure at the club in his role as managing director of the women’s team. But Snodgrass says: “There has never been anything in terms of any sort of problem. I see the chairman’s son on a day-to-day basis. I’m only here to play football.”
Snodgrass would rather see the positives.