Rooney: I couldn't tell team-mates I was struggling

Wayne Rooney has laid bare the issues with anger and mental health that punctuated his career.

Nobody has scored more goals for Manchester United or England, yet there was a feeling of what could have been after the 36-year-old retired to take the managerial post at Derby this time last year.

Rooney burst onto the scene in stunning fashion at Euro 2004 and swiftly became one of the world's best players, with the generational talent now opening up on how he did that whilst dealing with internal strife.

The forward even used to lock himself at home for days at a time drinking to help numb the pain as he dealt with becoming an overnight star in the public gaze.

"There was a period in my career, for a long period of my career, I was suffering inside," said Rooney. "I was finding ways to deal with that. A lot of it ended up in drinking.

"Where I felt stuck, I felt like I couldn't go into the training ground and say I'm struggling with this mentally, or I'm struggling to deal with this on my own.

"I couldn't go into [senior players], the likes of Roy Keane, Ryan Giggs and say 'listen, I'm struggling here.'

"It's not something you do, where now it's a lot easier to actually do that, which is good because obviously people are recognising the mental health issue and talking about it and trying to catch it early, especially with some of the young lads who are struggling with that."

"I wanted to try and hurt someone, try and injure someone."

Rooney said the issues were a mixture of everything and built up to the point where he saw a psychologist for a short period of time.

Asked if there was better support available he could have had an even better career, the Everton youth product said: "Yeah, possibly. You never know. You always look in