We’re all familiar with newspaper stories about torn hamstrings, stress fractures, busted knees and shoulders. The Age can devote an entire page to a champion footballer’s groin strain. But until recently, nobody ever mentioned an athlete’s mental health unless it was to lament some lapse in concentration at a vital stage. “A brain explosion!” is the familiar term.

Now, suddenly, a wave of mental instability seems to be sweeping through professional sport. Athletes are complaining about the pressures of performance and expectation, about the commitments forced on them by sponsors, about racist abuse and sexual harassment. We’ve gone beyond the old cliches about things being lonely at the top, or fame being a gilded cage. The issues are, critically, bound up with the identity politics that are redefining – and dividing – Western society.