Freddie Flintoff reveals his ‘guilt’ over Ricky Hatton’s death

Freddie Flintoff admits he has felt ‘guilt’ over Ricky Hatton’s death.

Hatton was found dead at his home in Hyde, Greater Manchester, by his long-term manager and close friend Paul Speak on September 14.

On Thursday, a coroner’s court heard that Hatton was found hanged and was last seen by his family two days previously.

Flintoff, who attended Hatton’s funeral at Manchester Cathedral last Friday, said he was unaware of the former world champion’s struggle with depression until they sat down together and spoke on the ‘Hidden Side Of Sport’ documentary in 2012.

‘It was quite close to home in a lot of ways,’ Flintoff said when asked about Hatton’s death.

‘Ricky, one of the great men, you know, I met him years ago. We did a thing for Sky Sports and I went on the pads and he started hitting me and I was a fan as well.

‘He’s charming, he’s funny, our careers run parallel with each other at the height, at the same time. I went to his fights… we had nights out in the Press Club in Manchester and we’ve sung karaoke together and I never knew all these things that he was struggling with until we sat down.

‘When we started talking, obviously, he was so honest about what he had been going through and what he felt. And then, as he was talking, I was, like, relating to it. I’ve felt like that, that’s what I’ve been like. Then it just turned into a chat about two blokes being really honest.

‘I suppose that documentary changed and I wasn’t going to give as much away about myself but then felt obliged to actually if he’s doing this.

‘This working class hero from Manchester who goes into the ring, he fights, all heart. He’s funny. You see him like doing stand up routines at press conferences and he feels like this. And then obviously what’s happened over the past two weeks, it’s been devastating. For obviously his friends, his family but anyone who has been in contact with Ricky. I’ve been in contact with his manager Speaky, obviously he’s broken.’

Asked when he last saw Hatton, Flintoff said: ‘I sat with him a while ago on a train. I got on a train and he’d been somewhere.

‘We sat together all the way back up to Manchester, quite unexpected. I think it’s like all these things, when something like that happens. You speak and everyone says, ‘he seemed fine’, ‘he seemed all right’, ‘he was looking forward to fighting in the next few weeks out in Dubai’.

‘There’s almost a guilt… it’s like – how people didn’t know? The one thing I found cover the past few years, it’s happened to more and more people.

‘With Graham Thorpe in cricket… absolute great man, someone who is thought of so dearly by everyone who he played with and everyone he coached.

‘You just feel like, ‘if only we would have known’. But you know it’s terrible.’

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