Rangers legend Nacho Novo: Mental health issues led me to contemplate suicide
SUNDAY MAIL EXCLUSIVE: The Spaniard went into the lowest point of his life when he retired from the game in 2017.
Rangers legend Nacho Novo has admitted he contemplated suicide when the loss of his football career became too much to bear.
The Spaniard, who was inducted into the Ibrox clubâs Hall of Fame in 2014, retired from the game in 2017 and went into a post-football state of depression that ultimately took him to the lowest point in his life.
Novo had a heart attack while playing for a Rangers legends team in Berlin and had emergency surgery to save his life in 2018.
âI admit I went into a state of depression when my time was up in football.
âI drank too much. I dabbled in drugs and when Iâd reached my lowest ebb I thought about ending it all.
âThe combination of good friends and the professional help I sought with regard to my mental health issues got me through that episode. Now Iâm on a mission to help myself and get back into football to act as an inspiration for young players. I want to be a good person and help people.â
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The 45-year-old, who scored 73 goals in 255 Âappearances for Rangers is now a coach at West of Scotland Football League club Drumchapel Utd in the sixth tier of Scottish football.
The community club have given Novo the platform to continue his personal rehabilitation programme while helping others at the same time. âI am no longer the old Nacho,â he said.
âI am serious about the business of rehabilitation because I know the person who contemplated suicide wasnât the real me. I realise now how stupid I was at that time. People change and I had to re-adjust for the sake of my 14-year-old son Javier.
âI went to coach in America for two years and I missed him very much. I donât want to let him down in any way and I want to open my own eyes every morning and be full of optimism for the future. I know Iâm in a good place now.â
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Apart from coaching at Drumchapel, Nacho, who is separated from wife Donna Clark, spends three hours daily in the gym training for a charity fight with Tik-Tok influencer Caz Milligan.
But his main focus is on Drumchapel.