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Notts County full-back Matt Tootle has spoken out to raise awareness of Mental Health Awareness Week. Last year, the 27-year-old opened up on how his career was almost derailed due to mental health issues and had cognitive therapy to help assist him. Tootle has been widely praised by his Notts teammates, staff and fans, not to mention the wider football world for speaking out. The player has once again sought to raise awareness of mental health and wrote on Twitter: "I’d just like to try and help raise awareness again for how important it is to speak up and not be ashamed of a mental health issue, I continue to believe we are making great progress in making mental health something not to be ashamed of!! "I continue to battle my own struggle day to day but I love my life and everyone in it! Anyone out there who is struggling please speak to someone." Tootle has enjoyed a superb season in the Black and White, winning the Notts County Fans Player of the Year award this term. Share your thoughts about this news story on Pride of Nottingham by signing up to the website, visiting the forum and joining in the chat with hundreds of fellow Notts County fans. Fancy showcasing your brand or business on Pride of Nottingham? Click here to find out more about sponsorship and advertising opportunities with us.

Matt Tootle has praised Kevin Nolan for the support shown to him since the manager's arrival at Notts County in January. The left-back has been speaking out about his problems with mental health and how they threatened to derail his career at one point. In May, Tootle revealed revealed how he had enjoyed a superb season at Crewe Alexandra going into the summer of 2014, but "something then just triggered" in his mind while he was on holiday in the off-season. Over the last few weeks, the 27-year-old has spoken to the likes of talkSPORT about the topic, which has prompted waves of support from people who have been affected by mental health issues. In an interview with the official EFL site, Tootle said: “The reaction has been unbelievable – for me it has been quite emotional. “From the place I was in to be able to speak out now, I take great pleasure in trying to help people. I know what some of these people are going through and to hear about how much I have helped is really good. “Since the new manager has come in he has been unbelievable with me. He knows me and what I need. When I came back after the summer he and the assistant manager both congratulated me telling me how proud they were that I’d come through this. “I was worried they would ‘tag’ me... but if anything they saw it as the opposite, which was refreshing to hear. I like to think that they’ve seen I’ve come on leaps and bounds and that there is much more to come from me as well!” Share your thoughts about this news story on Pride of Nottingham by signing up to the website, visiting the forum and joining in the chat with hundreds of fellow Notts County fans. Fancy showcasing your brand or business on Pride of Nottingham? Click here to find out more about sponsorship and advertising opportunities with us.

Notts County defender Matt Tootle has opened up on his battles with anxiety and depression, saying nobody is immune from mental health struggles and urging people to seek help. The 26-year-old revealed how he had enjoyed a superb season at Crewe Alexandra going into the summer of 2014, but "something then just triggered" in his mind while he was on holiday in the off-season. Speaking during Mental Awareness Week, Tootle told Leigh Curtis of the Nottingham Post: "I was on top of the world. There was talk of a move to Blackburn, Burnley and Nottingham Forest and as any player who has been at Crewe will tell you, and given the club's history, it's all about 'that' move. "I went on holiday and something then just triggered in my mind. I was reading the newspapers and there was so much bad news happening to good people. Then I just started thinking deeply about life and how you can be happy at one moment but knowing it can all change in an instant. "It hit me a bit and I just started panicking, thinking I hope that doesn't happen to me. Those thoughts then become obsessive and they snowball. Anxiety took hold and in the end you keep on recycling those thoughts over and over and over again. It was the worst week of my life. "After that I returned back to Crewe for the following season and I played 16 or 17 games and just wasn't at it. What was going on in my mind was just too important. I was sweating, hiding in my own house and it just got ridiculous. It got to the stage where it was affecting my reputation. Crewe fans were probably thinking 'why is he rubbish all of a sudden?'. "I eventually told my mum and she said I just needed to give myself a break. I told Steve Davis, who was the manager, and the physio about what I was going through. "The fans had no idea what was going on and they probably thought I was trying to force a move because it was the end of November and I just stopped playing. "But I went to the Priory Clinic and they then sent me for cognitive therapy. If you have any kind of anxiety or anything like that, if you can begin to understand it then you can deal with it." "We should be talking about this every day let alone one week of year. The problems with mental health is that you can't see it. "If you see some guy with a broken leg in casualty and there's another just sat there with his head in his hands, you think the guy with the leg is worse because you can see he's in pain. But people suffer in silence and this is what we've got to address." Read the entire Matt Tootle interview on the Nottingham Post by clicking here. Share your thoughts about this news story on Pride of Nottingham by signing up to the website, visiting the forum and joining in the chat with hundreds of fellow Notts County fans.