Ronan McNamee had a tooth knocked out on his Tyrone debut by Paul Galvin – but life off the field turned out to be even more difficult.
The Red Hand full-back has opened up about his struggle with depression which left him feeling he had “no way out”.
The 2021 All-Ireland winner was at his lowest ebb five years earlier when he bought a set of knives and cut his wrists.
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It wasn’t until 2019 that he went public about his situation in a shock interview. Four years on, it’s only recently that the 31-year-old has become comfortable with speaking about his welfare.
Launching the Darkness Into Light event, a fundraiser for suicide prevention and bereavement support services, McNamee admits it’s “still raw” discussing the struggles.
He said: “I did a thing with the Antrim hurler Domhnall Nugent about a month ago, he has got a ‘Let’s Face It’ campaign, talking about his mental health and he is going around schools up north, going around clubs and making a massive push on it.
“Seeing the likes of that, speaking at it, it is uncomfortable.
“Your emotions are hanging on a knife edge for you all the time but, the more I feel I can speak about it, then the easier it will get and you might just be able to get more comfortable with it.
“At the minute, because I have not done a lot of talking about it away from the couple of times that I have, it is still pretty raw.
“But everyone who has come out with their own story will tell you the more that they talk about it, the more open you are about it, the easier it is.”
McNamee initially shot to prominence in 2012 when he was handed a shock Championship debut against Kerry in an All-Ireland qualifier. He had been out for months with a broken ankle but boss Mickey Harte tossed him a jersey and told him to mark fiery Kerry attacker Galvin.
McNamee said of Galvin: “He knocked my tooth out! To be fair, my tooth was loose but I remember it sitting on my tongue.
“I couldn’t get my gumshield in because my tooth was loose and after a wee shemozzle it fell out and I remember spitting it out onto the field and hammering on.
“It was probably good and bad in a way that I hadn’t any real time to prepare. I had no time to think about things so it was just a matter of testing how well I could swim.”
McNamee, currently preparing for the new All-Ireland group campaign with Tyrone, has gone on to win an All-Ireland and an All Star though struggled to keep his head above water at times away from football.
Revisiting the depression difficulties, he stated: “Whenever you do speak about it, it reignites a lot of the emotions that you would have felt previously.
“It’s not a case of it disappears and goes away – and you realise that the older you get. I know it’s something that if you don’t stay on top of it, it could easily return.”
Football ultimately provided McNamee with focus and a structure to help rebuild his life.
He is coming to the tail end of his career now with Tyrone and is hopeful of another crack at the All-Ireland this summer.
He also wanted another Ulster medal and admits losing to Monaghan, who pinched victory with a late goal, was a real blow.
McNamee said: “You know how competitive Ulster is. For anybody to tell you that it doesn’t matter is talking s***, to be brutally honest and to put it mildly.
“It was disappointing because we were in such a good place, playing at a good level and playing well.”
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