Ricky Hatton has entered rehab to tackle the ‘severe depression’ that caused him to drink and take drugs to excess.
A picture on the front of Sunday’s News of the World showed Hatton snorting cocaine at a Manchester hotel two weeks ago.
Hatton’s publicist Max Clifford believes that his recent drug taking is less of a problem than his drinking and depression, which is what the 31-year-old Hatton has checked himself into rehab for.
“His father has already been talking to the specialists over the last few weeks,” Clifford said.
“He and others have been increasingly concerned about his depression and his drinking.
“He met with the specialist for four, five, six hours and he was told that his depression is severe depression and that he has a drink problem.
“The problem is depression and the drink has been a problem for some time. From everything they’ve said, the drugs are a far more recent thing and very much superficial alongside the drink and depression.”
They are very confident if he does what they tell him with the treatment, therapy and advice, he can sort himself out,” Clifford said. “And he will do what they tell him.
“He’s been relieved by what they’ve told him.
“They’ve said, ‘This is your problem, this is what’s wrong, and we can sort it out. You should have come to us a long time ago’.
“It’s been a shaft of sunshine coming through. He’s faced up to it now even though he hasn’t for some time and it’s been there for some time.
“He genuinely wants to thank the thousands of people getting in touch wishing him well.
“He wants to say a big thank you to everybody for their kind words and thoughts. He’s sorry he’s let everybody down and he is now determined to sort himself out.”
