Manchester United veteran midfielder Michael Carrick has shed some light on his previous struggled with depression, and has admitted that he has before asked to not be called up by England because he was depressed.
The 36-year old, who is retiring at the end of the season, played over 30 times for his country.
Carrick revealed that the 2010 World Cup in South Africa is when he fell out of love with international football, revealing he asked the Football Association to no longer select him.
Talking on BBC Two’s Premier League Show, as quoted by FourFourTwo, Carrick said;
I’d been in the squad a long time and I’ll be honest, I was finding it hard going away with England.
I didn’t mind going away with United in pre-season for three weeks and coming back, but going with England, it was almost depressing in a way.
It made me really down, so I came to the point after South Africa where I thought: ‘I can’t do that again.’ People would be saying: ‘Pull yourself together and be grateful for it’ and I understood the position I was in, the privileged position I was in, but I just found it so hard and I couldn’t deal with it any more.
Yes, I was depressed at times, yes. I told the FA: ‘Look, please don’t pick me.’
Having missed most of this season after having heart surgery, Carrick is set to retire at the end of the season and take up a coaching position with United.
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