RICKY HATTON’S father fought back tears yesterday as he spoke of his anguish over his son’s battle with depression.
The 31-year-old two-weight world champion was admitted to a rehabilitation facility last night having battled with drink and severe depression for “several weeks”, according to his spokesman Max Clifford. And Ray Hatton yesterday revealed the issues which led his son to alcohol abuse – which eventually spiralled to the point where he was secretly filmed allegedly snorting cocaine while on a night out with friend Emma Bowe, the Irish national senior women’s boxing champion.
“With Ricky, he always wanted to please everybody – not just his family, but all the fans,” he said.
“When he had defeats, he just felt like he’d let them down and he got more and more depressed, which led him to drink more and more. It led him to drink and despair. He said to us: ‘I’ve let everybody down, including you and the fans, I need a drink to lift my head up’ – and it’s just gone from there.
“He’s got to be the one that realises that he’s poorly. Obviously it came to a head, and we all went round to his house on Sunday, his brother, his mum, his girlfriend was already there, and he just said to us that he needed help.”
