Michael Yardy

The England ODI all rounder is too take another break due to depression, this is a real shame especially since he is the wrong side of thirty and could find it difficult to get back into the ODI side. Does anyone think his depression due to too much Cricket and the demands that come with it or is it just Michael Yardy? Which ever way it is a real shame and I for one hope he comes back well again.

Even if he was fit I dont think he is good enough to play for England.

Well Mr S being a severe manic depressive myself, it is a debilitating illness and very difficult to overcome. I did read Marcus Trescothick's book and the insight was fantastic and how difficult he found it to manage and perform at cricket. Yes there is high demands and lots of cricket in the calendar, but it also depends if Yardy has a history with the illness. Robert Enke the German Goalkeeper took his life back in November 2009 due to depression and documentary highlighted that he suffered a horrific loss which triggered the condition and he tried to hide the illness and unfortunately felt isolated and 'ashamed' by it and never went public with it and was scared the impact it would have on his family. There is a better understanding of the illness in sport in general with such high profile cases, so there is a strong support network for Yardy. I hope he is able to recover and play cricket again.

Just to echo and expand on legendkillar's post, clinical depression is an illness with a physiological cause (thought to relate to CO2 in the bloodstream) that affects mental well-being because it disturbs the brain chemistry - it is not just feeling 'a bit down', and is rarely if ever triggered simply by something like too much cricket. It is something you either have a susceptibility to or not.

There are several cases of professional sportsmen suffering with depression - in addition to Tresco, Yardy and the tragic Robert Enke, both Gazza and Frank Bruno have struggled with this demon after retirement, Mark Bosnich had some problems while at Man U and the great All Black winger John Kirwan has apparently written and broadcast extensively on the subject of his depression.

Hoggy was recently suggesting he beleives he had some for of depression that led to his loss of form and eventual dropping by England. Its one of the worst thnsg that can hit people, you start to underpeform and people see you as having a bad attitude and that just exacerbates the situation.
And lets not forget it led the loveable rogue Stan Collymore to slap Ulrika about, trash a training camp, get beaten up by Bath RFC, and take up dogging as a hobby.
In the grand scheme of things if the worst thats happened to Yardy through this is that he got a bit more rubbish at cricket then he has gotten off lightly so far.
Good luck to the guy, I hope he finds his peace and gets himself sorted out. I doubt we'll see him play for England again though, he was hardly Trescothick they still sorely miss.