Two years after Morro García’s death: the signs no one saw before the suicide and the ephemeral mental health debate

There are questions that can remain unanswered as long as pain runs through existence. Why does someone decide to take their own life? There is no reason, even if the questions stifle and stumble on conjectures that no one can confirm. Two years ago, the Uruguayan footballer Santiago Garcia He realized he had enough certainty to trigger a .22 bullet in the left parietal, and at 30 he put an end to everything that was overwhelming him. And also what not. That’s how they found him in his apartment February 6th and the autopsy determined that he had committed suicide Two days before.

The transit of the Morro García in recent months has been marked by discomforts of all kinds. On a personal level, he missed his daughter who he hadn’t seen since before the pandemic started, when preventive and compulsory social isolation was a rule on both banks of the Río de la Plata and in almost the whole world. He was negotiating with Godoy Cruz his move to Nacional, the club where he made his debut ten years ago and in the city where he could see his daughter again.

He was in conflict with the Tombas. PresidentJose Mansur, had released an interview in which, without quoting him directly, he spoke of positive and negative leaders. Among the features of the latter was the Morro García. He was in psychological and psychiatric care, with no desire to train or respect any routines and because of this he was not physically 100%. even less when positive result for covid and had to isolate himself in the same apartment where he was found dead a few weeks later.

With the team on tour in Buenos Aires, some colleagues were concerned that El Morro had stopped responding to messages. The same with his family, from Uruguay. The phone rang and no one answered. They broke down the door with the police and found him dead. It was already late for everything. Since then, the questions have recurred: what happened? Why? Who was to blame? And now that? Gonzalo Garcíahis brother, targeted him directly against the president of the Graves. “Mansur was largely responsible for what happened to my brother,” he said in an interview with Clarín.

“The first thing you do is look for a culprit. But it’s not possible. What is possible is to look for the causes”he explained to this newspaper Gonzalo Diazsports psychologist: carries out his professional role in the technical staff of the first basketball team of Zaratewho plays in National League.

“Suicide in sport unfortunately happens often. Today we know that El Morro had a very serious depressive picture. These emotions tend to remain silent because the culture and context of sport show us that they are a sign of weakness. That the player isn’t well, that he can’t play, that he doesn’t have confidence, that he has a problem. What would be the problem in admitting that something else is going on, communicating it, talking to someone about it? This is what could have been done and was not done.”Díaz analyzed, with the case of García as an example.

It’s about mental health. And by the way, a colleague – in this case another footballer -, a coach or a club president doesn’t have the tools to scrutinize the silences of the players. “It’s hard to find signs. A psychologist is the one who has those tools. Psychological work in schools is much more normalized today, even if it continues to be stigmatized. Having a psychologist, even with remote contact, might have helped. I don’t know if I could have prevented (the suicide of Morro García), but I could have interpreted the signals and given tools to the coaching staff.”summed up the graduate.

historically, the football world was reluctant to give way to psychology. That’s why she surprised, in full Qatar World Cuplisten Emiliano Martinez Give your psychologist a central role. “I’ve suffered a lot in these three days, I’ve talked a lot with my psychologist because the truth is that they kick me twice and score two goals, it’s hard to digest”Dibu confessed after the 2-0 win over Mexico gave Argentina hope after their bumpy start against Saudi Arabia.

What was Morro like?

García lived alone in Mendoza, far from Montevideo where his little daughter lived. Those who have come into contact with him in recent weeks have understood that El Morro was depressed. The management questioned his physical condition: he was overweight, which Mansur had pointed out without mentioning it on Andina radio: “You cannot be a leader and not go to the gym, not respect weight regimes, be in the red with all measurements. There is a situation of players who haven’t conformed professionally, if they don’t conform they can’t be. In the First Division we have a structural problem. We really need to have positive leaders.”

The Morro was the Tomba’s top scorer with 51 goals widespread between 2016 and 2020. But in recent times his performance on the pitch had decreased: in this way his state of mind was also reflected.

“We see ourselves in the obligation, before the news and posts on social media, to communicate, as evidenced by some journalistic media and as your intimate circle knows, that your drastic decision was taken due to personal problems that you had been dragging on for da time, totally unaware of the relationship with this institution”, the club defined its responsibilities shortly after the news broke.

Two years after El Morro’s death, the issues remain in place. It is possible to reconstruct his last days or weeks and now understand his inevitable end. With the suicide completed, the question may be: How many clubs give mental health status? Morro’s suicide was not the last in Argentine football. A month before the World Cup, 20-year-old Samuel Rebollo also took his own life when he realized he wasn’t going to become a professional, stuck in Aldosivi’s Fourth Division. Even the decision of the Uruguayan García was not unprecedented: in 1994, Mirko Saric, a youngster from San Lorenzo or in 2003 Sergio Schulmeister, to cite two cases among many, took the same decision.

The signs that others do not see can be perceived by those who suffer from it and are crossed by the conviction of being trapped with no way out: in the City of Buenos Aires and in Greater Buenos Aires there is the free helpline 135 and for the rest of the country you can contact (011) 5275-1135.