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Former Liverpool goalkeeper Bruce Grobbelaar has revealed that football saved him after he got depressed owing to incidents that forced him to kill a man.
The 60-year-old fought in the Rhodesian Bush War in the 1970s after being conscripted for an 11-month period.
After Rhodesia became Zimbabwe in 1980, Grobbelaar went on to represent his country 32 times. The Zimbabwean made 440 appearances for Liverpool and won 13 major titles- six league titles, three FA Cups, three League Cups and the European Cup - with them during his thirteen years with the club.
Following the conscription period, Grobbelaar moved to Canada to play for the Vancouver Whitecaps.
This was followed by a loan move to Crewe Alexandra where he revealed he almost ruined a chance to impress then-Liverpool manager Bob Paisley.
Former scout Tom Saunders, however, spotted the goalkeeper and convinced the club to sign him in 1981.
In a revealing interview with the BBC, the goalkeeper admitted that he still gets cold sweats when he remembers his time killing guerrilla fighters.
Speaking in the interview, he said, "You’re not the same person once you have done it. You have to live with the consequences for the rest of your life."
"The memories have subsided somewhat, but there are times when you are with your mates back in Africa and they particularly like to speak about it. I don’t."
"After that, for about a two or three-week period, I do get cold sweats and wake up with those feelings again."
The former Liverpool man admitted that his life would've panned out differently if it wasn't for football.
He said, "Over the years, I am very lucky that I didn’t submerge into a form of depression because football saved my life really."
"Once I came out of the military, I had football to fall upon which took my mind off those incidents."
Twitter has since been flooded with reactions to the news:
