Rehab forHatton aftercocainerevelation

Publicist Max Clifford said Hatton spent several hours speaking to specialists following newspaper claims on Sunday that the boxer used “industrial quantities” of cocaine on a night out in his home city of Manchester.

Mr Clifford said Hatton’s state of mind had been a cause of concern for some time, and that drug use was only the most recent manifestation of a much bigger problem.

“His father has already been talking to the specialists over the last few weeks,” Mr Clifford said.

“He and others have been increasingly concerned about his depression and his drinking.

“He met with the specialist today for four, five, six hours and he was told that his depression is severe depression and that he has a drink problem. The drugs are quite recent and not actually the problem when we’re talking about degrees.”

Mr Clifford said the specialists were confident he could make a full recovery.

“They are very confident if he does what they tell him with the treatment, therapy and advice, he can sort himself out. And he will do what they tell him.”

While Sunday’s story in the News of the World was said to have left Hatton “devastated”, Mr Clifford now thinks it will turn out to have been a good thing.

He said: “He’s been relieved by what they’ve told him.”

“They’ve said ‘This is your problem, this is what’s wrong, and we can sort it out. You should have come to us a long time ago’.

“It’s been a shaft of sunshine coming through. He’s faced up to it now even though he hasn’t for some time and it’s been there for some time.”

Mr Clifford said Hatton was keen to thank his fans for the messages of support he had received.