Former Norwich City striker Leon McKenzie has spoken out about his battle with mental health, which led to him losing his family, home, and culminated in an attempted suicide.

Eastern Daily Press: Leon McKenzie in 2014. Photo: Bill SmithLeon McKenzie in 2014. Photo: Bill Smith (Image: Archant � 2014)

Mr McKenzie, 38, is now a professional boxer, but played for the Canaries from 2003 to 2006.

During this time, he faced winger Aaron Lennon on the pitch, who was then playing for Tottenham Hotspur.

But after Mr Lennon was last month detained under the Mental Health Act, Mr McKenzie realised sharing a pitch was not the only thing they had in common.

'I've walked pretty much every path. That's why I feel like I'm in a position to talk about this,' Mr McKenzie told the Telegraph.

'When it comes to mental health, the problem is very serious in football. I've had footballers contact me for years.

'There's been big names, huge names… When bad news like with Aaron Lennon comes out, then suddenly people talk about it, but these issues are happening all the time. The culture doesn't change.'

It comes as Mr Lennon seems to be the latest in a long line of high-profile footballers suffering with mental health problems.

And last week Michael Bennett, the head of player welfare at the Professional Footballers' Association, warned clubs seemed to prioritise the physical well-being of players over their mental health.

During his football career, Mr McKenzie said whenever he was depressed, he would keep it to himself.

He said: 'If you speak out, you feel your position is going to be jeopardised. You worry that 'Oh god, I might be judged'.'

Mr McKenzie said his mental health struggle stemmed from his childhood growing up in south London.

He watched his parents - mother, Donna, who ran a pub in Streatham and three-time boxing champion Clinton McKenzie - go through a difficult divorce, where he said he saw 'things I shouldn't have done at a very young age'.

And then, before he was even a teenager, Mr McKenzie said he was 'seduced' by a woman in her 20s, who drank at the pub.

'I laughed it off at the time,' he said. 'When I got older I thought that wasn't so laughable.'

At 15, he bagged a trial with the Crystal Palace youth team and went on to enjoy a successful career, with 400 professional appearances and 118 goals.

But in 2009 while playing for Charlton Athletic, he said he was hit with one of the worst bouts of depression of his life.

Estranged from his wife and away from his children, Mr McKenzie was living alone in a hotel room. And after suffering an injury in training, he decided it was time to kill himself.

He had already been hoarding pills.

He called his father to say goodbye, however instead his father rushed over and called an ambulance.

But despite an overnight stay in hospital, Mr McKenzie returned to training the next day as if nothing had happened.

'I didn't tell anybody. I was scared. What you see now with a lot of footballers, it's the same. It's quite shameful. For me, I found it embarrassing,' he said.

For Mr McKenzie, his turning point came when former Wales manager Gary Speed took his own life, prompting Mr McKenzie to speak out about his own mental health.

Now, he is a mental health advocate, encouraging others in the game to come forward.

But he maintains there is still work to be done, especially in lower leagues, to address what he says is a huge amount of denial surrounding mental illness in football.

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