Germany have called off their friendly with Chile in Cologne on Saturday following the sudden death of goalkeeper Robert Enke. Enke was struck by a train at a railway crossing in Neustadt am Rubenberge yesterday evening and died at the scene.
The 32-year-old Hannover keeper had only recently recovered a mysterious bacterial infection and had been omitted from the squad for their upcoming friendlies against Chile and the Ivory Coast next Wednesday.
The German FA confirmed the news on their official website, www.dfb.de.
Enke had long suffered from depression and fears of failure, his wife and his doctor said today.
He is survived by his wife Teresa and an adopted eight-month-old daughter. Enke's wife said the couple had tried to overcome years of depression through therapy.
"When he was acutely depressive it was a very difficult time because he lacked motivation and any hope of improvement," she told reporters at a news conference.
Enke, who apologised in a letter for hiding the condition leading up to his death, tried hard to keep his depression secret.
His wife, dressed in black and struggling to hold back tears, said: "It is crazy because now it is coming out anyway. We thought we could do everything and we could do it with love but you can't always do it."
Germany team manager Oliver Bierhoff broke down in tears after adding that Enke's depression had gone unnoticed by team mates and officials.
Enke won eight international caps and was in the running to play at the World Cup in South Africa next year.
After years of battling injuries and personal issues, including the death of his two-year-old daughter due to a heart ailment in 2006, Enke finally appeared poised to grab the number one spot in the national team.
He lived in the shadow of Oliver Kahn and Jens Lehmann for almost a decade and it was only after the latter's international retirement last year that Enke emerged as a leading contender for the position, despite earning his first call-up in 1999.
He won his first cap in 2007.
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/YVIRIOZQ35EWRPZXR27KGMO6YU.png)