Germany's grieving footballers have written a moving open letter in tribute to tragic goalkeeper Robert Enke.
Team-mates pay tribute to tragic goalkeeper
Germany's grieving footballers have written a moving open letter in tribute to tragic goalkeeper Robert Enke ahead of their friendly against Ivory Coast.
The Hannover shot-stopper committed suicide last Tuesday when he was struck by a regional train travelling between Norddeich and Hannover.
Last Saturday's friendly against Chile was cancelled as a mark of respect for Enke, who battled with depression before taking his own life.
His team-mates will play their first match since the tragedy against the Ivorians in Gelsenkirchen, and ahead of the game released an emotional tribute to their former colleague.
"Your death for us is still omnipresent," it read. "It has made us all speechless, stunned, helpless. We were stunned when we got the unbearable news.
Memory
"We were not able to put our grief into words. We were not able to play football a few days later. We could not simply go about business as usual.
"We all needed to realise this moment of calm in order to realise what has happened - to properly understand. Perhaps we never will.
"We have long sat together and thought of you. We have been silent together, cried together and searched for answers together, but in fact found only more questions - agonising questions of 'Why could we not help you? Why did you not want to talk to us about your problems? Why is it that, in our competitive society, it is not possible to express fears over such illnesses?'
"It is for all of us a painful thought that you felt so alone and in need, even if you were with us.
"For you there was so much more at stake than for any other of us. Your death is so bleak. But we will do everything we can to carry on in your memory, play good football to be successful. And we will do our best to ensure that stigma and prejudice have no place in football."
