Danny Murphy has spoken about the role that Robbie Keane played in helping him come to terms with his father's death.

Murphy and Keane were team-mates at Tottenham at the time of his father's passing from lung cancer, and explained that he found the subject difficult to broach publicly.

Danny Murphy on father's death

"I didn't talk about, maybe I should have," Murphy said of the reason behind leaving Tottenham early.

"My old man got ill really quickly, and out of the blue, and I spent time with him up until he passed - which was a massive chunk in the football world; say, a month.

"You're not training and emotionally it takes its toll. Once he had passed and I was desperately trying to get back and occupy myself, I didn't realise the effect that it had on me physically but emotionally as well. It was years later I could look back and try and judge that."

Murphy said that it was, in his mind, 'easier' to blame Martin Jol for leaving him out of the side.

"In life, wisdom comes to you as you get a bit older; you can look back and see what really went on.

"I was in a ridiculously difficult position to try and play my best football. The one thing that I didn't do - and I can't really think why, maybe I didn't want sympathy - I chose not to speak."

Robbie Keane

Into the picture came a man who had lost his own dad a few years before: Robbie Keane.

"Keano was brilliant with me because he had lost his dad a few years earlier, so he understood and became a really good friend of mine.

"It was a nice friendship to have at that moment - great support. The club was phenomenal, a brilliant place to work, and I deeply regret not showing the fans that I had more to offer."

Murphy spoke about how Keane had helped him process what had happened.

"Bringing up the subject of someone's death is always very difficult. Obviously, we have all got different stories.

"The normal thing was that when I went back, lads would be a little tentative. Keano would just openly talk about it. I might not play for a couple of weeks, or I'm on the bench, and then he would say 'come on, come to mine - we're having some food, a few beers and a night out.'

"He even made me wear his gear one night, but that's a different story!"

We wouldn't be journalists if we didn't pry into that story...

"We went out one night because he was trying to cheer me up. He said 'we're similar sizes, you can wear my gear'. The short version is that we're in a bar and we get talking to a few girls.

"I'll never forget that one of them decided to lay into my gear! Keano was not best pleased, let me tell you! The irony was that I was finding it hilarious even though she was laying into what I was wearing!

"That was Keano all over - he was great fun and great support."

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