The 28-year-old Brazilian ended his Inter Milan spell abruptly as he suddenly returned to his homeland 18 months ago, saying he doesn’t want to play football anymore.

"The source of his depression has always been the death of his father which he has never overcome," Adriano's mother Dona Rosilda told Gazzetta dello Sport.

"Due to his great success many people criticised him without really knowing what was happening to him and that sent him into a downward spiral.

"No-one knows the nature of pain more than those who are suffering from it and probably I didn't even know how to help him.

"One day, when he was still in Italy, he rang me and said he didn't want to go on, he wanted to stop playing football.

"He confessed that he was thinking of committing suicide and I told him to react with his heart because nothing is more important than his happiness and that if to obtain it he had to give up football, then no problem."

Adriano, once Brazil's first-choice striker, has yet to find the net with Roma as he only made two cameo appearances since a summer move.