Romelu Lukaku has revealed that football destroyed him and made him cry every day.
The 31-year-old has had a fruitful start to life at Napoli after joining permanently from Chelsea this summer.
However, the forward had endured a difficult few years in the game before the move, having been loaned out to the Blues on multiple occasions.
His form has also affected him at international level and while playing for Belgium at the 2022 Qatar World Cup, Lukaku missed three golden chances in a must-win group stage match against Croatia.
The misses meant Belgium could only draw 0-0 and were ultimately eliminated from the World Cup before the knockout stages.
Romelu Lukaku has revealed that a match against Croatia at the 2022 World Cup destroyed him
The attacker missed three big chances which knocked Belgium out of the tournament
The striker came into action at half-time with Belgium teetering on the brink of a shock group stage elimination.
Lukaku had two excellent chances to break the deadlock after an hour, but to the surprise of many, he squandered both.
In the dying moments of the game, Lukaku had the chance to atone for his earlier mistakes when the ball fell to him in the penalty area, but he failed to score again.
Lukaku was criticised by fans and the media after the game, but the striker has shown that the missed chances themselves had the biggest impact on his mental health.
“So we played Croatia and it was 0-0 and I said, ‘There is hope’,” Lukaku told the Friends of Sports podcast. “Then I move on and you know how the game went. I missed four clear chances. God decided it that way, no problem.
“But the aftermath of it all started when I hit the dugout window, and that’s when all my frustrations came out.
‘I’ve been playing football for 23 years and this is the first time it’s happened to me like this. The very first time.
‘I never thought about depression, but I swear I went away, went on vacation, and cried every day for a week. Physically and mentally I was destroyed.’
Lukaku failed to break the spell in the 90th minute, leading to criticism from fans
Lukaku recalls that the match was the first time he had shown such frustration in public
The ordeal left Lukaku’s mental health in tatters. In the weeks that followed, he avoided the sport he loved as much as possible.
The striker has since revealed that former Belgian assistant coach Thierry Henry made sure he had support during what was a difficult time for him.
‘I have to give Thierry Henry a big compliment. He called me three times a day every day to ask: ‘Are you OK? How are you mentally?’ Because he knows what it’s like.
‘He’s just like me, he lives and breathes football, he knows everything. He watches all the games and he knows that I’m a football addict.
‘From then until the final, I didn’t watch a World Cup game, I cried every day.’
Before the Belgium game against Croatia almost two years ago, there were doubts as to whether Lukaku would even play.
The striker missed the first two group matches against Canada and Morocco due to injury, but returned because he wanted to keep Belgium in the tournament.
‘We had three days to prepare for the match against Croatia, so my first official training was the day after the match against Morocco.
Former Belgian national coach comforted Lukaku during a difficult period in his career
‘I also trained two days before the match against Croatia, it was my first training in three months.`