Hatton will get family's backing

Ricky Hatton can count on the support of his family in his "massive battle" against depression, according to his father.

The 31-year-old boxer was admitted to a rehabilitation clinic on Monday having battled with drink and severe depression for "several weeks", according to his spokesman Max Clifford.

And an emotional Ray Hatton said on Sky Sports News: "It's a massive fight he's got on his hands, he showed a lot of bravery, and his family and fans will be behind him."

The two-weight world champion was secretly filmed allegedly snorting cocaine while on a night out with friend Emma Bowe, the Irish national senior women's boxing champion.

And his father added: "With Ricky, he always wanted to please everybody - not just his family, but all the fans.

"When he had defeats, he just felt like he'd let them down and he got more and more depressed, which led him to drink more and more.

"It led him to drink and despair. He said to us: 'I've let everybody down, including you and the fans, I need a drink to lift my head up' - and it's just gone from there.

"Obviously it came to a head, and we all went round to his house on Sunday, his brother, his mum, his girlfriend was already there, and he just said to us that he needed help.

"We'd been waiting for a lot of months, as early as last week we were speaking to a counsellor about it, and the minute he said that I got on the phone to the counsellor."