"I just felt lost.

Where's it going to take you to?"

Content warning: This article contains discussion around feelings of depression and suicide.

Former Liverpool, Aston Villa and England defender Stephen Warnock has opened up on how the struggle of ending his professional career left him contemplating his own life - until a chance meeting with a friend-turned-therapist began to turn the dial.

Warnock namedrops Arsenal star who can make a difference for Slot at Liverpool	I could have signed Virgil van Dijk for £3m - now he's won everything at Liverpool	Ex-Premier League manager recalls how he could have signed Virgil van Dijk for £3m

Warnock made more than 550 appearances for 10 clubs across 16 seasons, but speaking to Sky Sports as part of the Real Talk series, he revealed how his spiral started as he began falling out of love with the game and felt like his career had been a failure by the time he reached retirement.

"I felt like I was getting frustrated with football," he said.

I wish I had just gone, 'I've had a great run, I've lost the love for it, I'm going to find something else that makes me happy'.

"I looked back on my career and thought I was a failure.

Going to Liverpool, then going to Blackburn, to Aston Villa, then to Leeds and I just continued to go down.

It put a positive spin on it, made me realised what I'd achieved in my career.

"I spoke to him once and he said he'd watched me on TV and my voice sounded different, my body looked different in the way I was sitting, I looked confident in the way I was

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