Today I'm going to step away from the subject of City and talk about the death of German national keeper Robert Enke. As is now well known the Hannover 96 net minder was killed by a train near his home on Tuesday evening. All indications are that the 32 year old committed suicide having left a note to that effect.

Depression is a very much misunderstood condition. It is portrayed, wrongly, as though the person is "feeling down" and "sad" and that really all they need to do is buck up their ideas and get on with their life.

That Enke feared his daughter would be taken away from him because of the disease is endemic of the lack of knowledge that the general public have about the disease.

Moreover there is a school of thought and reaction that highly paid people can't be depressed because they have financial success. Nothing could be further than the truth. Depression, true clinical depression, is utterly debilitating. It is a mental disease caused, so the latest thinking goes, by both natural chemical imbalances in the brain and possibly gene related. It is not something that can be wished away through strength of spirit and purpose.

It impacts individuals, and those that love them, constantly.

Enke had been treated for depression since 2003. That he was able to function at such a high level professionally yet have such utter despair and hopelessness personally is unfortunately part of the nature of depression. It's easy to accept that someone is ill when they have a disease and are confined to a bed. It is so much harder to accept that someone is seriously ill when they can appear so normal some of the time.

My sympathies and prayers to his widow Teresa and daughter Leila and I commend her for speaking about the subject so soon after her husband's passing.