Rio Ferdinand 'saved me from depression' says emotional brother Anton

Following the tragic death of his mother eight years ago, retired footballer has openly discussed the detrimental effect her death had on his mental health. But now, the former West Ham star, 40, has revealed that due to the help of his brother and other family members, he was "lucky" enough to navigate his way through the darkness of depression.

At his lowest point following the passing of his mother to cancer in 2017, Anton exclusively told the that he was spiralling out of control and using alcohol to numb his pain.

He explained: "I was drinking a lot. I sit here lucky, I've got a good support network around me. Fantastic wife, fantastic children, fantastic family members who saw that I needed help. And not everyone is lucky like that, to have that support network."

When asked if he would go as far as to say that his brother Rio and other family members helped save him from what could have been, he responded with a simple "100%."

He continued: " One reason I use the term lucky, I'm lucky because mental health is a crazy thing where you don't realise you're in it until you come out of it. "

He added: "So the day to day thought process, you actually think you're ok because it becomes the norm. And the only time you realise you've had a mental health issue is when you're on the way out of it, which is dangerous. "

He went on to say: "That's so dangerous because some people don't get to the point where they're on their way out so they don't know that they're in it. So everything is normalised for them. That's how dangerous it actually is."

"I was able to realise something was wrong with me on the way out of it. I didn't realise what was wrong with me while I was in it," he continued.

Anton has joined forces with the mental health charity campaign on tackling harmful language in sports media.

And since retiring from playing professional football in 2019, Anton delved into the of reality TV with gusto and most recently appeared on .

But it seems as though Anton gained far more from the show than simply taking part and showing a different side to his character. He claimed that it allowed him the opportunity to "rediscover" himself.

He told the Mirror: "The competitiveness, the structure everyday for me was massive. I've not had that structure everyday for a long, long time.The whole set up of Dancing On Ice felt like a football club to me. "

He added: "In a football club, I spoke to everybody, I wasn't someone who only spoke to my team mates and my manager. I spoke to the cleaners, the cooks, the admin people, I spoke to everybody in the football club."

He continued:" I was like that on Dancing On Ice. The Ice allowed me to feel like Anton Ferdinand again, which for me was one of the best outcomes of being on Dancing On Ice."

And it seems that he grew close to his fellow DOI contestant as the pair both trained at the same ice skating rink in Chelmsford.

Anton revealed: "I spoke a lot with Ferne. Me and Ferne trained a lot at Chelmsford together and her skating partner Brendon Hatfield. I was really, really close to him."

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