BRAVE Sam McQueen detailed the mental struggle he went through whilst battling his physical injuries - admitting that it “ruined me for a certain amount of time".

An ACL tear suffered whilst playing on loan for Middlesbrough in the EFL Cup eventually proved too much to overcome, with multiple setbacks leading to around nine surgeries since McQueen suffered the injury in October 2018.

This week the Saints academy product announced his retirement after a three-and-a-half year fight to return to competitive football.

In a frank and open interview with Saints’ website, the Southampton-born 26-year-old said: “I didn't maintain a positive attitude.

“I became quite depressed and (had) probably six months of counselling which was much needed and helped me a little bit, but I still wasn't able really to be there for my family.

“Open and happy to say now that that I wasn't capable at the time to deal with those things.

“I thought I was capable to (do) anything.

“I thought I was Superman when I was playing football and playing Premier League football.

“I was completely unaware that I had no capability to deal with any emotional or personal traumas.

“It ruined me for a certain amount of time, and it's taken three years for my mind to start to process it, and start to feel like myself a bit again.

“(It’s) new - it’s a new challenge. I’ve not had anything like this before.”

Whilst suffering an ACL tear can keep players out for up to 12 months in some cases, it is also associated with a host of complications that can delay or even prevent a return to the field.

McQueen’s recovery was constantly hampered, eventually forcing him to retire from the game he loves.

He continued: “(It was) Bad luck. Bad timing. Bad management from me.

“Week before Christmas, I started getting hot flushes, found out had an infection. So I got rushed up to London to have some emergency surgery to try and flush the infection out of my knee.

“I found out the infection had come back, same infection, so I had to rush up to London again.

“Had to redo the whole operation, taking ligaments in my other leg to try and use to put the knee right there.

“I had that last surgery in July 2019, so from November 2018, to July 2019, it was probably about nine different surgeries I had.”