Boxer, Conor Benn has admitted he had suicidal thoughts after his career was thrown into jeopardy following a failed drugs test last year.

Speaking publicly for the first time since his positive test, Benn told Piers Morgan Uncensored how he ‘didn't think he would see another day’ after the scandal. When pushed to say what that meant, he admitted to contemplating suicide.

‘It's hurt me; it's hurt me this has,’ said Benn. ‘I didn't think I was going to make it through this period; I didn't think I was going to make it through.

‘I was shamed for something I hadn't even done, it's hard because I felt like I was on death row for something I haven't even done.

‘If I had done something wrong I'm human, I'd raise my hands to it "I made a mistake", whatever it is I raise my hands. Never this, and I felt seven years of hard work and sacrifice and leaving my family and the image I maintain was just ruined at somebody else's incompetence. It's been hard for the family.

‘I didn't think I'd see another day. Yeah (I was feeling suicidal), yeah I'd say so, and it upsets me now because I don't know how I got so bad.

‘I got in a really bad way about it. You've got to remember, if you think I'm innocent or if you don't think I'm innocent, I am innocent.’

Benn was recently reinstated to the WBC's welterweight rankings, with the organisation concluding that a ‘highly-elevated consumption of eggs’ was the cause of Benn's failed test. While he welcomed his reinstatement, Benn has said that he never mentioned eggs in the report he filed to the WBC and the sanctioning body's egg defence had done him a ‘disservice’.

Meanwhile, in a statement released last week, Benn criticised the British Boxing Board of Control for treating him with ‘utter contempt and without any consideration for fair process or my mental state’.

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