EX-ENGLAND defender Stephen Warnock has revealed he considered suicide after retiring as a player.
The former Liverpool star says he got into a "rut" and lost his marriage, even briefly losing contact with his children.
Warnock turned for help to a trainee counsellor - and now tells that friend "all the time he saved my life".
The ex-Aston Villa left-back, 42, amassed more than 550 career games.
He played twice for the Three Lions and made Fabio Capello's 2010 World Cup squad.
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Yet Warnock felt "like a failure" as he slipped down the leagues.
And after quitting playing aged 35 in 2018 he became "massively depressed for years".
One reason was life lacking the "buzz" of being on the pitch.
Another factor was financial stress caused by an "ill advised" investment.
Warnock, now a TV and radio pundit, told Sky Sports: "I looked back on my career and thought I was a failure. I thought I'd had a terrible career.
"Going to Liverpool, then going to Blackburn, to Aston Villa, then to Leeds and I just continued to go down. I always remember thinking I'd let myself down there."
The 2016 League One winner with Burton added: "After you retire, I think people come out [of football] and just think life's going to be okay.
"But it's about what's going to give you that buzz, what's going to give you that excitement in your life.
"If you find that quickly, you're okay, but you've got to find it."
Warnock then explained how a chat with an old friend changed things.
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He said: "I'd contemplated taking my own life at one stage.
"I was in so much of a rut, I just thought I was done until I phoned him. I tell him all the time he saved my life."
He added: "Then I started engaging more with my kids, they could notice a difference in me.
"And I started to get a sense of looking back on my career and not being disappointed in it. It put a positive spin on it, made me realise what I'd achieved in my career."
Warnock played for 10 teams in all between 2002-2018.
He won the Uefa Super Cup with his first club Liverpool in 2005 and picked up a Club World Championship runner-up medal the same year.
Warnock also earned a runner-up gong with Villa following the 2-1 League Cup final loss in 2010 to Manchester United, for whom Michael Owen and Wayne Rooney overturned James Milner's early opener.
He was twice club player of the year - for Coventry in 2003-4 and Blackburn five seasons later.
