{"id":45625,"date":"2025-12-22T17:20:44","date_gmt":"2025-12-22T17:20:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/?p=45625"},"modified":"2025-12-22T17:20:44","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T17:20:44","slug":"cx2e5jn466goat_mediumrssat_campaignrss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/2025\/12\/22\/cx2e5jn466goat_mediumrssat_campaignrss\/","title":{"rendered":"Rhys Bennett: Manchester United defender on father&#8217;s suicide"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Africa tv video display -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3579572842\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\">\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\"><i class=\"ssrcss-xbdn93-ItalicText e5tfeyi2\"><b class=\"ssrcss-1xjjfut-BoldText e5tfeyi3\">Content warning: This article contains discussion around suicide and mental health.<\/b><\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\"><b class=\"ssrcss-1xjjfut-BoldText e5tfeyi3\">Rhys Bennett comes bounding into the media room at <\/b><b class=\"ssrcss-1xjjfut-BoldText e5tfeyi3\">Manchester United<\/b><b class=\"ssrcss-1xjjfut-BoldText e5tfeyi3\">&#8216;s Carrington training ground bristling with energy, as you would expect of a 22-year-old professional footballer.<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Tall and confident, lean and physically fit &#8211; apart from a knee injury he is trying to recover from so he can complete a loan move to a League One club next month &#8211; defender Bennett offers a firm handshake and talks of his developing skill as a DJ.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Captain of United&#8217;s last FA Youth Cup-winning team in 2022, Bennett has impressed during a loan stint at Fleetwood.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">But he is not talking about that today.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Bennett has serious issues to discuss, which stem from a heartbreaking message he posted on social media on 28 October.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;Broken, devastated, just don&#8217;t want to believe it&#8217;s real,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I love you in this life and the next.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The message was to his father, David, who had taken his own life.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Bennett wants to talk about the pain of those left behind, to encourage conversation and plead with those struggling with their mental health to choose a different path to the one his dad took.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">David, along with the rest of his family, gave his time to help Rhys and daughter Megan, who works in mental health care.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;He was very hard working,&#8221; says Bennett. &#8220;You grow up, especially as a son, and look up to your father. You want to be like him.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;He gave me so much along the years, including my resilience and work ethic. The time him, my mum and family invested in me to fulfil my dream is something I&#8217;ll be forever grateful for. They were always there for me, no matter what.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;They don&#8217;t realise how much they&#8217;re appreciated, and how they affect people. You want to have millions more laughs and cries and whatever it might be. I appreciate everything he&#8217;s ever done for me.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;As much as it&#8217;s a sad situation and the last chapter of his life wasn&#8217;t a good one, you&#8217;ve still got to celebrate his life and think about the good times.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;If I could have one more conversation with him it would be to say how grateful I am of him as a person, how much I love him and let him know how much I really appreciate him. You don&#8217;t know what you&#8217;ve got until it&#8217;s gone.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Bennett&#8217;s reason to talk to BBC Sport is clear. He wants to help. He realises it is quite possible he will never know if an interview has helped a specific individual, but that is not the point.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;I want to talk about the importance of telling people how you feel, how special it is to be living, to be breathing, to be able to eat, to sleep. You&#8217;ve got to be grateful for what you&#8217;ve got,&#8221; he says.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;Someone might be feeling a certain way but hopefully this nudges people and they might just check up on a person and ask are they OK.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;Don&#8217;t question yourself &#8211; just do it. Let the people you&#8217;re close to know that you&#8217;re there for them.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Africa tv video display -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3579572842\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\">\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n#Rhys #Bennett #Manchester #United #defender #fathers #suicide<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Content warning: This article contains discussion around suicide and mental health. Rhys Bennett comes bounding into the media room at&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45626,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mzansi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45625"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45625\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45627,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45625\/revisions\/45627"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}