Adelaide star Izak Rankine has revealed he wanted to quit football after being suspended for a homophobic slur last year.
The 25-year-old was slapped with a four-game ban for using a homophobic slur towards Collingwood player Isaac Quaynor during the Crows’ Round 23 win at Adelaide Oval last season. The ban meant Rankine missed the entirety of the Crows’ finals campaign.
In the aftermath, Rankine fled to Italy and upon his return to Adelaide, he said there was no excuse for what he said and that he was deeply sorry.
And opening up on the ordeal for the first time on the Tommy Talks podcast, Rankine revealed the guilt drove him to a “very, very dark place” and said he wanted to quit footy.
“You have to go real, real low to be able to look at yourself in the mirror and really self-reflect and make some adjustments and bounce back,” Rankine told Tommy Sheridan.
You can watch Rankine break his silence on the saga in the player above.
“I was in a very, very dark, very, very low place, but then again, that belief in me was ‘you are going to bounce back, you are going to be better, you aren’t a bad person, you can still come out and do the best you can, this isn’t going to define you’.
“The turning point was being at the bottom and thinking ‘what else?’. I can either just sit here, wave the white flag and give up.
“Because I wanted to retire, I wanted to finish and I was like ‘I don’t want to do this no more, I’m done’.
“You want to give up, you want to retire, you know depression and the thing is that I was already dealing with that stuff through my family and the circumstances which I was given.
“So it was very tough to be hit again and then sat on my arse a bit. So that was tough, having to deal with family issues, being one of the leaders in my community and being looked on for things and expected to be in places and show your face and just look after everyone in the community.
“It was tough and then to be put on your arse like that… and you start to question who you are, and you start to question what you’ve been doing and how you’ve been acting and who you’ve been hanging around with and what has been really going on.”
Rankine said his support network really helped him get through the tough period as he apologised again to everyone who was impacted by his conduct.
“I am sorry to anyone I affected or caused havoc to, I never meant to do that,” he said.
“All I can say is that I put my hand up and let’s move forward together because we are on the same side, we are on the same team.”
Originally published as ‘Wanted to quit’: Izak Rankine breaks silence on homophobic slur ban