Former youth international star Junaid Hartley has provided further detail about his journey into living a normal life after years of substance addiction tore apart his life.
The little boy that was a darling wherever he played as he broke through into the professional ranks as a teenage has now grown into a man who is now 45 but has swallowed half of his adult life with drugs.
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Having now come out of a 16-month long rehabilitation, Hartley is not shy to talk.
"It was a near-death experience to go through that because I was busy killing myself slowly, but my sister saved me," says Hartley.
From playing for Wits University and then having stints in Portugal and France before returning to do duty for Orlando Pirates, Moroka Swallows, Ajax Cape Town, and Maritzburg United amongst other clubs, Hartley has seen it on the field yet also damaged his life through drugs and gambling.
"I pray to God that my experience doesn't end up even with my worst enemy.
"There was a stage in my life when there was nothing, I couldn't afford but then I cracked under pressure when I stopped earning from the game and couldn't move on to the next plan.
"The attention that I got at a young age was crazy and never knew that all these privileges would stop one day.
"Only now am I going on to the next plan.
"I had a good support structure that sent me away to get help for a while.
"If it wasn't for my sister, I wouldn't have been able to come through this.
"If it wasn't for my children's mothers that I didn't appreciate and respect when I was with them then I wouldn't be here because they came to the party and supported me.
"It was tough love that involved getting a court order to get me into a facility for a year and four months.
"I was completely absent to what was happening around me.
"Never mind not being present in my children's lives but completely absent to what was occurring in the world.
"When I went into rehab I was completely lost because life goes on.
"For the first visit that I was allowed at that facility where I stayed for over a year, my sister brought all my four children and said today is the start.
"Every visit after that, she came with a new surprise to keep me going on the road to recovery.
"If she didn't bring my children (four girls), she brought all their mothers to show that they are all behind me.
"Towards the end of my stay in rehab and just after I got out, I had nightmares about what I will do to have a life again.
"So, we came up with the idea that I should get into commodity trading and coaching which I'm still doing at ETS up to now every weekday and on weekends.
"Being involved in soccer has been part of the process of my integration back into society and stimulating me.
"The people that have made my business possible today is people that know me from football because of the impression and respect," says Hartley.
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