Eoin Larkin has revealed how a phone call from Brian Cody was the catalyst for him to seek help in his battle with depression.

In his newly released autobiography, ‘Camouflage’, the eight-time All-Ireland winner writes honestly and openly about how he had harboured suicidal thoughts.

He details how Cody asking him: “How are you feeling?” three years ago changed his life for the better.

“I was gone,” Larkin says in an interview in today’s Irish Independent. “Convulsions. Just floods of tears. There was no conversation as such.”

Cody advised him to make contact with the Kilkenny team doctor Tadhg Crowley and he recalled attending the subsequent appointment with his wife Anne.

“I suppose I was worried about showing any weakness as well. I know Anne nearly 20 years and the first time she saw me cry was that morning Brian phoned.

“But the moment I admitted considering suicide to Tadhg, it was as if somebody had taken their legs off my shoulders. I could actually feel my head coming up a bit.

“Obviously it wasn't next or near finished, but... just to have somebody who understood. To be fair to Tadhg, he just took it all in his stride. It was like he was after hearing it a hundred times that day. The conversation was so normal, which I didn't expect.”

As a consquence, the Cats legend is in a much better place today...

“That Eoin Larkin wasn't comfortable with himself. Would never have spoken about anything like this. Hid everything. Definitely wouldn't have spoken to Anne about it. In fact, would have blamed her for a lot of the arguments. Would have taken it out on the kids.

“Whereas now, I'm enjoying doing things with the family. Back then, all I wanted to do was slump onto the couch and watch the telly.

“Today I'm totally comfortable with who I am, whereas I wasn't before.”

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