London - Former Premier League hero Dean Windass has revealed how he tried to commit suicide twice last week.
Little more than a month after the suicide of fellow footballer Gary Speed shocked the football world, ex Hull and Bradford striker Windass told how battles with drink and depression led him to try to take his own life.
According to the Daily Mail, the father-of-two has struggled to adjust to life since quitting football two years ago and says he has cried every day.
Last year, he split from Helen, his police officer wife of 18 years, after she found out he had been seeing a girl he'd met in a pub behind her back.
And just a few days ago, following the sudden death of his father, Dean attempted to take an overdose.
Luckily a former girlfriend turned up at his door in the nick of time and, realising what he had done, forced him to drink pints of water until he was sick.
But the following day after slipping back into the grips of depression and drinking half a bottle of strong amaretto liqueur, he tried to commit suicide again.
For a second time he was saved by a miraculous stroke of luck - when a friend of his knocked on the door.
At the height of his fame Windass was earning more than half a million pounds a year.
In 2008 he scored the goal that would take his home town club Hull into the top flight of English football for the first time in their 104-year history.
He also appeared in the Premier League for Bradford City and Middlesbrough and played in the Scottish Premier League with Aberdeen before ending his professional career, which spanned 19 seasons, in 2010.
Loved by the fans for his passion on the pitch, with a beautiful wife and loving family it seemed he had it all.
But after squandering most of his fortune on clothes and top-of-the-range cars Windass has been left almost bankrupt, unable even to pay for his son's car insurance.
After retiring from playing Dean had hoped to move into management. But things didn't work out and he found it impossible to get work.
Windass has struggled to adjust to life since retiring from football two years ago
He said: 'People outside football think we have it all. But I was in a hole that I honestly didn't know how to get out of.
Windass said the suicide of Wales manager Gary Speed in November last year had a huge impact on him
"I need to sort myself out which is why I'm speaking out now. It's part of me getting better - part of the healing process," he said.
Today : Sunday - May 27, 2012, 01:57pm (GMT+5.5)
