Republic of Ireland international Harry Arter has given an emotional and extremely moving interview to Premier League World regarding the loss of his daughter Renee during childbirth in December 2015.
The tragic story came to light as Arter decided to play for Bournemouth against Manchester United when many had expected him to miss the fixture for obvious reasons. He not only played, but was the best player on the pitch and received a lot of love from both the public and his fellow professionals for the bravery he showed during such a difficult time.
Thankfully, Arter and his wife Rachel welcomed their daughter Raine into the world back in February, and while the joyous occasion still brought about feelings of sadness from what had happened before for the couple, he is now in a position where he can talk openly about his struggles for anyone else who finds themselves in a period of sadness and doubt.
Speaking to Premier League World this week, Arter explained how he uses Renee for inspiration in everyday life, and his touching recount of events made for an outstanding piece that reflects really well on the man.
In particular, Arter described how low he felt when, while still dealing with the loss of his first daughter, he found out that injury was going to rule him out of Euro 2016 with Ireland.
I went away with Ireland in the summer, at that point it was six months to the day that Renee had passed, I remember just sitting in a real struggle. I had to pull out of the Euros because of my quad, and I just felt like, this is not how I planned my life to go.
Everything felt like it was going against me. My personal life, my injuries, I kind of hit my lowest point then as a time to feel like I need to, I wouldn't say 'get help' but kind of accept what's happened and try and understand my emotions.
I never felt happy speaking in a room to someone who it was there professional job to help me, I never felt when I came out of the room that it would help me, so speaking out to the papers and sharing my story was just my form of therapy.
Loads of people have come forward saying how much they've been helped by me saying how I was feeling, and to be able to get things off your chest, people respond with such nice things back, it does give you a nice lift.
Even if it's for one minute or five minutes, it does give you that lift, so it was very nice for me at the time.
Harry Arter also touched on how Pep Guardiola's words of encouragement after Bournemouth defeated Man City earlier this season gave him a massive boost, and he went on to describe the Spaniard as the best manager ever.
All in all, it was a fantastic piece. Arter's words are from the heart and could go a long way to helping someone who finds themselves in a situation of similar difficulty.
