WATCH: "I fell out of love with football" Roy Carroll on his days of drinking and depression

One of Northern Ireland’s highest profile players has opened up about his battle with depression – that saw him lose his love for the game.

Roy Carroll was speaking on our latest BetMcLean Football Show, which is available to view now on Cool’s Facebook page (see below).

The Linfield keeper, who has had a long and decorated career including a four-year spell with Manchester United, tells how an eight-month injury while at West Ham sparked the beginning of a downward spiral.

He said: "That was the hardest time of my career, trying to overcome that. But it got me. I couldn't overcome it and I got depression. I started drinking heavily. That was the main thing that happened in my football career and it changed my life. For about two or three years I fell out of love with football."

On new perspective on that period, Carroll added: "You just look back and think, ‘there's people a lot worse off than me’. I think of how stupid I was for those eight months because I was still in the Premier League playing for West Ham - but at the time you don't see that. I'm lying on the floor because of my back injury and I thought I was never going to walk again, because that's just how depressed you get."

Carroll says he was determined to keep playing: “When I went to Notts County for a 10-day trial, I was thinking, 'I've been at Olmypiakos, I've been at Manchester United - why am I doing this?' But you have to do it. I know I was good enough, I just had to prove to the manager that I've still got it."

Now 40, the Fermanagh-born Carroll said he was enjoying life and just wanted to play on with the Blues for as long as possible.

“I'll take each year as it comes and hopefully I can get over this injury and play a few games at the end of this season. If Linfield want me to stay next season then I'll stay,” he said

Carroll said lifting the Gibson Cup with Linfield was one of his favourite moments in his career.

“It's amazing,” he said.

“Winning the trophy last year was wonderful, especially with all the points we had to catch up on Crusaders. But it hasn't happened this season. That's always the hardest thing, the second year when you have to come back and you have to perform.

Carroll told how he was star-struck on arrival at Manchester United in 2001.

"What am I going to say to these people?,” he said.

“What do I say to David Beckham and Ryan Giggs? But when I actually went in to that first day of training, I felt like I'd been there for years because they were all fantastic with me. Beckham came up to me, shook my hand and said, 'Welcome to the club, I'm David Beckham.' And I'm just sat there thinking, 'Yeah, I know who you are!'

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