Glenn Maxwell has revealed the "powerful" text messages he received from fellow former Australia star Shane Warne while he was going through a difficult period in his life.
Warne's death was announced earlier this month, after he was found unresponsive in his villa while on holiday in Thailand. Friends rushed to try to revive the 52-year-old, but he was later pronounced dead at a local hospital before an autopsy later revealed he had died of natural causes.
A special documentary aired in Australia this week, celebrating his career and life ahead of his state funeral next week. In the Channel 7 one-hour special Warnie, friends and former team-mates pay tribute to the King of Spin's ability on the cricket pitch and iconic personality off it.
One of those to give an interview was Australian all-rounder Maxwell, who stepped away from the sport in 2019 to focus on his mental health. The 33-year-old has since been vocal about his battle with anxiety and depression and once revealed that he wanted to break his arm during the 2019 World Cup so that he could have a break.
Speaking about Warne, he revealed that the last text messages he received from the legendary spinner included him asking about his wellbeing. As he recounted the conversation, it was clear that the check-in from his old mate had meant a lot to him.
"I actually went back, had a look at my last text chain with him, and it’s something that’s going to live with me forever," Maxwell said. "He just randomly checked in, so it said, ‘Well played last night. How you doing? Are you OK?’
"And I didn’t think too much of it because I was sort of just playing it cool, ‘Yeah, yeah, I’m fine. Thanks, mate. Hope you’re going alright.’ But he kept on going at me, Sort of chipping away, ‘Nah, nah, are you OK? What’s up?’
"He knew that something was up and it took like the third or fourth time to ask me, ‘Are you OK?’ that I actually sort of told him what was going on and he’s just wrote a little paragraph to say that he was there for me, ‘Let me know if you ever need to chat or a phone call.’
"For him to sort of reach out to me at that time, and keep probing away to make sure that I was okay, I thought was really powerful and something that I really cherish about our friendship post-cricket. He was always there."
