Former England star Jason Robinson revealed on Monday that he considered killing himself during a troubled period of his career.
Speaking in an ITV documentary about his life, which will be broadcast on Tuesday, the 40-year-old former dual-code international said it had been his heavy drinking during his early days at rugby league club Wigan that sent him into a prolonged decline.
Robinson, who scored for England in their 2003 World Cup final victory against Australia, said: “I got into a situation where I was drinking sometimes six nights a week.
“Monday it was Wakefield, 10 pence a pint night. Tuesday I would be over to Liverpool, Wednesday it would be Oldham. Thursday it would be Wigan. And after the game we would go out wherever.”
However, it was his arrest for affray, assault and criminal damage which left him considering an attempt on his own life and he credits then team-mate and Samoa star Va’aiga Tuigamala with turning things around.
“I can remember I just sat in my bedroom with an old knife, an old meat cleaver,” he said.
“I didn’t want life to go on in this way. That night when I contemplated doing it, I wept like a baby.
“Had it not been for him (Tuigamala), coming into the environment I was in and putting a different slant on it, I certainly wouldn’t have the hope that I’ve got now. And hope is something that people can’t take away.”