Rio Ferdinand admits heartbreaking reason he didn’t want to talk about late wife’s cancer battle to Man Utd pals

Ferdinand's first wife, Rebecca, died from cancer at the age of 34 in 2015.

She had first been diagnosed with the disease in 2014, but kept her illness private while receiving treatment.

However, the cancer returned and spread to her bones.

And just five weeks after being told by doctors that her condition was terminal, the mother-of-three tragically passed away.

Ferdinand did not speak to friends or team-mates at Manchester United about the issue at the time.

Speaking to The Times over a decade on from the tragic loss, Ferdinand revealed a conversation he had with fellow United icon Wayne Rooney when the pair addressed personal struggles they had silently been through.

Ferdinand said: "It's built in, in men, not to talk."

The former defender wants to change the stigma around that dynamic by providing a "safe space" for guests to talk about their issues on his podcast, Rio Meets.

Rooney expressed his regret of not being able to talk to his team-mate about his problem during an appearance on the podcast earlier this year, saying: "Not just me, but the other players are thinking, why didn't we do more to allow you to come and talk to us?"

The 39-year-old had even admitted on the podcast that he believes he "would be dead" without his wife Coleen

Ferdinand, 46, said of that conversation: "I was like, 'Wow, I didn't anticipate any of that coming'.

"We were just fortunate Wayne felt comfortable enough to be so open. I've seen Wayne in low situations.

"We lived and shared and breathed a life of football together, so I'm going to see things other people haven't, but I never knew about a lot of the things he told me."

But Ferdinand is glad that progress has been made to give players more space to speak about their mental health struggles, bemoaning it was something his generation "never had".

Mostly though, he is happy that his two sons Lorenz, 19, and Tate, 17 – both in the Brighton academy – would be able to openly speak on any issues they may have.

Ferdinand reflected sadly on his chats with Rooney, Steven Gerrard and Michael Owen on the podcast due to their openness now, while in the dressing room such a notion would never have been entertained.

He said: "The thing I say to all footballers, past and present, is we've now got the best opportunity to shape the narrative. This is the best era. My generation never had this.

"We could never have come to the media and said, 'I'm feeling really low, I might need a couple of months off because of depression. I have certain things going on at home. I'm having problems with drink.'

"There'd have been huge headlines and people would have just gone 'what?'

"We'd have been hammered. But I'd love to have seen what it would have added to our teams. If we'd been able to be a bit more open and talk about these types of things, I genuinely believe it would have helped.

"I don't think we would have been allowed [to express our struggles]. People would have put negative slants on our names, our whole personae would have been different.

"You've got to look at someone like Wayne Rooney. Or Steven. These are gunslingers. Roy of the Rovers types who can drag a 20-man squad out of the mire.

"How would that have been allowed if they were looked at as a bit of a 'weak touch' in terms of mental capacity and whatnot back then?"