THE room is filled with young, fit and outwardly confident men in the prime of their lives complete with trendy haircuts, nice watches and flashes of bling.

They are professional footballers, the first-team squad of Motherwell to be exact, and on Monday morning after training they to a man sit in silence, respect and obvious interest as they are spoken to about suicide, just about the only taboo left in modern society.

It is a staggering thought that this is the age group most at risk of taking their own lives and, yes, that means even those who are by all accounts successful and have everything to live for.

It’s far from an easy listen. Larry and Lynn, of North Lanarkshire Suicide Prevention, a council project which the club closely supports, don’t mess about. They are not interested in tip-toeing around such a delicate subject which has become far too common in the football world, never mind life in general.

They take the players thought the signs people send out, subconsciously or not, that they are thinking of suicide. How to help them and how to help themselves are topics thrown open to the floor. Not everyone felt like joining in when such questions were asked.

Footballers, especially younger ones, are surprisingly shy in such circumstances. However, you could tell the message got through during what was a rather intense session

Motherwell take their role in their local community seriously, their Community Trust is one of the best in the country, and this project is on the back of their shirts. This is a club which has known far too many tragedy, which is why they take “It takes 90 minutes to save a life” so seriously.

Paul McGrillen, a huge favourite at the club, took his own life in 2009. There are staff inside Fir Park directly involved with a subject which touches so many but it’s one few if anyone really wants to talk – which is what this was all about.

Earlier this year Chris Mitchell, who played for Falkirk among other clubs, walked in front of a train. He was 27. German goalkeeper Robert Enke did the same, Gary Speed’s death still feels unreal, while Clark Carlisle attempted to take his own life three years ago. There are many more.

Neil Lennon has spoken openly about his depression and David Cox, a young Scot who began his career at Kilmarnock, rather bravely talked about his own battle with the demons.

The people behind the scheme believe that if famous footballers are happy to discuss suicide in public then someone contemplating the act might, just might, find it in themselves to share their worries with someone else.

As Larry said: “A lot of people think about suicide every day. Anyone can have these thoughts regardless of their age, stature or where they come from.”

He asked the players to raise their hand if they had known someone who had committed suicide. Four or five did. One of them was goalkeeper Craig Sampson who more than any other of his team-mates participated in the session. This should come as no surprise.

One of his best friends is Kris Boyd whose 27-year-old brother Scott took his own life just a few weeks ago.

Samson said: “This is a subject which everyone should know about, especially men. There are people you can talk to, there is help available and you don’t need to hide away from everything. I have personal experience of suicide and I think it’s a great thing North Lanarkshire has a suicide prevention scheme.

“There is no doubt that you feel helpless when you get that call. Certainly, when it happened recently to someone I knew, it was just utter shock. I was with Stephen McManus at the time when I took the phone call and Stephen had to usher me away, we then sat down and had a chat about it. I will never sum up how it felt.

“Those who find themselves in the position of thinking about committing suicide… I can’t imagine what they must go through.”

Football clubs and the players themselves have a huge influence on the public and the hope is that if supporters going through a bad time see and hear the guys they watch every Saturday take part in such initiatives then they would feel more comfortable about seeking help.

There was a perfect example last week when Alan Burrows, chief operating at Motherwell, sent out a tweet to promote World Mental Day and publicise their partnership with the North Lanarkshire Suicide Prevention.

What happened next was extraordinary.

A Motherwell fan on Twitter admitted to Burrows that he was in a bad place and then upon reading a helpline number in the tweet found himself crying inside a phone box - but at least talking to someone about how he was feeling.

Samson was bang on the money when he said: "If one Motherwell fan heard us talking about it and that saved his life then that would be incredible.”

Back to the session and it’s noticeable how certain statistics made the players sit up that bit straighter. In Scotland last year there were 696 reported suicides. In 2014, there were three murders in North Lanarkshire and 52 suicides.

It is reckoned that every year approximately 275,000 people in Scotland at least considered killing themselves. These are shocking figures.

Motherwell deserve huge credit for promoting the fact there is help out there. You should click on the link below. It could a life. Maybe even your own.

For more information and to get involved go to northlanarkshire.gov.uk/safer or call 0800 073 0918

If you need support right now, call the Samaritans on 116123 or Breathing Space on 0800 83 85 87