Chris Kerr: ‘A rollercoaster I couldn’t get off’

When Chris Kerr spoke out on his struggles to cope with depression, it stunned the sporting community in Antrim. Now the Saffrons keeper is coming out the other side, and proving an inspiration on and off the pitch, writes Declan Bogue

There are a few lines in the South African novelist JM Coetzee’s Youth that read; ‘Through these balmy summer days, which seem made for ease and pleasure, the testing continues: what part is being tested he is no longer sure. Sometimes it seems he is being tested simply for testing’s sake, to see whether he will endure the test.’

For sportsmen living with depression, this is how it is. Those that file through the gates, that fill the bleachers to watch baseball on sunny days or stand in huddled masses at National League matches exhaling puffs of their own breath, they might struggle to believe that the combatants, those gods they have come to bear witness to, can struggle through their days.