{"id":667737,"date":"2026-05-13T07:29:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T07:29:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/667737\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T07:29:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T07:29:15","slug":"steven-may-reveals-mental-breakdown-led-to-abrupt-retirement-on-eve-of-afl-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/667737\/","title":{"rendered":"Steven May reveals ‘mental breakdown’ led to abrupt retirement on eve of AFL season"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Melbourne star Steven May has described a “mental breakdown” that led to his sudden retirement on the eve of the AFL season.<\/p>\n

The dual All-Australian called it quits in March<\/a>, exactly two weeks before the Demons’ campaign began under new coach Steven King.<\/p>\n

“The worst part about it was I had just done a pre-season and I hate pre-seasons,” May told SEN on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

If you or anyone you know needs help:Lifeline<\/a> on 13 11 14Beyond Blue<\/a> on 1300 224 636<\/p>\n

“Some people love them but I really hate them.<\/p>\n

“It was the end of January so I’d finally got through it and was ready for a new year. I was injured all last season and had a bad year on the field.<\/p>\n

“I was really ready to show people that I still have it, did the pre-season, ran a PB in January, up and about, let’s go.<\/p>\n

“Then I had a bit of a mental breakdown and found myself a bit lost and not sure what to do.<\/p>\n

“It came to a point where I had to put the club before myself.<\/p>\n

“I was able to retire before the deadline, so then they could get another player in \u2026 all in all, it looks like it’s worked well for both parties.”<\/p>\n

\"Composite<\/p>\n

All charges against Richmond midfielder Dion Prestia (left) and May (right) were dropped over an alleged brawl. (Getty Images)<\/p>\n

His comments come less than a week after all charges were dropped against May and Richmond premiership midfielder Dion Prestia<\/a> over an alleged brawl in Sorrento.<\/p>\n

The magistrate also ordered the Victoria Police Chief Commissioner pay their legal costs.<\/p>\n

“Your name gets dragged through the media. I know I don’t have the greatest name already, so that didn’t help,” May said.<\/p>\n

“Especially when you were so innocent in something.<\/p>\n

“You can’t really do much or say much because it’s a criminal charge.”<\/p>\n

ABC Sport Daily podcast<\/a><\/p>\n

ABC Sport Daily is your daily sports conversation. We dive into the biggest story of the day and get you up to speed with everything else that’s making headlines.<\/p>\n

May, who famously played in Melbourne’s 2021 grand final win with a torn hamstring, is now playing local football with East Ringwood.<\/p>\n

“There comes a point where you’ve got to make a decision that’s best for my family but also for the footy club,” he said.<\/p>\n

“My family is happy and the club is flying, so I’m pretty stoked with it.”<\/p>\n

May played 128 games with Melbourne and 123 for Gold Coast, where he was also co-captain for two seasons.<\/p>\n

AAP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Melbourne star Steven May has described a “mental breakdown” that led to his sudden retirement on the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":667738,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,322425,64,63,55,639,7804,85,8018,322424],"class_list":["post-667737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-afl-and-mental-health","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-melbourne-demons","tag-sports","tag-steven-may","tag-why-did-steven-may-retire"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=667737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667737\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/667738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=667737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=667737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=667737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}