Former Wales football manager Gary Speed may have killed himself accidentally, a coroner has ruled.
In a narrative verdict, Cheshire coroner Nicholas Rheinberg gave the cause of death as hanging but said "the evidence does not sufficiently determine whether this was intentional or accidental".
The inquest at Warrington Coroner's Court heard that Speed texted his wife Louise days before his death and "talked in terms of taking his life".
The couple also "had words" on the night before he was found dead after they had been to a dinner party at a friend's house.
Speed, who played for Sheffield United, Everton, Newcastle, Leeds and Bolton, was found hanged at his Cheshire home on November 27 last year by his wife.
But Mr Rheinberg said, in a narrative verdict, that the football manager may have "nodded off" while sitting with cable around his neck on the stairs in his garage.
Mrs Speed told the inquest her husband had talked in terms of taking his life in the text exchange days earlier but that he "dismissed it", saying that he was "excited" about the future with his wife and two sons. Mrs Speed said the text referred to their "ups and downs" but went on about "how important the boys were" and about "moving forward".
"We walked in the house and we had an exchange of words about something and nothing," Mrs Speed said. She said she suggested she go for drive but her husband blocked the door and told her she "wasn't going anywhere".
She later went for a short drive, but was then unable to get back into the house and could not get a reply when she tried to ring Speed. She then slept in her vehicle until about 6am, when she then found him hanging. She said there was no note or message left by her husband.
In a statement read out after the inquest, Mr Speed's family said the day of his death was the "worst day of our lives" but his memory "shines brightly in our thoughts".
Source: PA
