Stoke City attacker Bojan Krkic has recalled how he missed the Euro 2008 finals due to anxiety attacks he was suffering as a 17-year-old starlet at Barcelona.
In just a few months during the 2007-08 season Bojan went from being an unknown teenager to an emerging superstar in the Barcelona first team -- and he has admitted in the past to finding it difficult to deal with the adulation and pressure which came with being an instant celebrity at such a young age.
In a revealing interview with Marca, the 25-year-old said that his issues with anxiety first became really serious before a Barca game against Osasuna in January 2008.
"Before the game I was dizzy at the hotel," Bojan said. "The boss [Frank Rijkaard] named the team and I was starting. In the bus I told the doctor I did not feel well. He gave me a caffeine tablet and I played a good game. I got home and with the tension released I fell on my bed. Immediately I began to tremble and shake. My parents took me to hospital, where I spent the night. It was a pretty strong anxiety attack, something I could not control.
"They gave me some tablets which relaxed me. From that moment it all really began -- I felt dizzy every day. It was constant, there was not one moment when I felt okay. I was talking medication constantly, especially when I went to training or to a game."
The following month Spain coach Luis Aragones called up Bojan to the senior squad for the first time for a friendly against France to be played in Malaga, but the youngster was physically unable to play in the game.
"The day of the game we were arriving at the stadium and all seemed to be going well," he said. "We went out onto the pitch and when I went into the dressing-room I could feel the dizziness getting stronger. Iniesta was beside me -- 'Andres, man, I'm dizzy, I'm dizzy,' I said to him. I could not even get up. The doctors came, the physios, Fernando Hierro and Luis Aragones, and I told them what was going on. They told me about other players who had gone through the same with the pressure. We decided to tell the press it was gastroenteritis."
Aragones was still keen to include Bojan in his squad for the Euro 2008 finals that summer.
"Luis [Aragones] called me the day before making public the squad," Bojan said. "I said that of course I wanted to go. I was 17 and this was the Spain coach calling me for the European Championships. But I told him no, I just couldn't, I did not have the strength to take on the situation. It hurt me a lot, any kid would want to go to the Euros, but I just couldn't. He told me to think it over, and he would talk to [Carles] Puyol."
At the Barca training ground Puyol tried to convince Bojan that he would be looked after during the tournament, but travelling was just not an option for the youngster.
"I reached the dressing room and Puyi came over," Bojan said. "He had not known I was only able to train and play after taking tablets. He told me he would stay with me all the time, I did not need to worry, Iniesta and Xavi would stick with me too. I told him I wanted to go, but my body had just had enough. I needed to relax and recover. It is very uncomfortable to be dizzy 24 hours a day. I was not ready to travel, to be with people. It was not that I didn't want to, just that I couldn't. He understood my decision."
Bojan was criticised in Spain at the time for turning down the chance to represent his country and has only ever played 10 minutes of international football. However he says he has no regrets about deciding against going to Euro 2008 as he had no other real choice.
"When the season ended I stopped," he said. "I went on holiday, stayed away from Barcelona, went to Formentera where there was nobody. There I was able to disconnect from everything. I began to lower the medication [doses] and by the middle of June I had stopped taking the tablets completely.
"I did not know why it was happening, but at the time I was sure that what was happening would make me stronger."