(Image: Getty)
Yesterday, the football world was saddened to hear that Ben Cousins was sentenced to 12-months in prison - a low point in the tumultuous life of the former Brownlow medallist.
On Triple M's The Hot Breakfast, Cousins' lawyer Michael Tudori discussed how he and his family are travelling since finding out the verdict.
"We were all pretty devastated as to the result," Tudori said.
"Ben’s been in custody now on these charges for the last 5 weeks."
"It’s pretty well-documented now; Ben’s chronic drug addiction. Over the last 5 weeks that he’d been remanded in custody, there’s certainly been a massive change in his attitude and mental state."
"In the back of his mind was worried and thought that he might be going to jail and the realisation hit him yesterday."
Eddie McGuire asked about a conversation Cousins had with his father, with claims suggesting Ben was struggling in custody without drugs.
"The way that all came out was somewhat unfair for Ben," Tudori said in reference to the leaked phone call.
"If you put an addict in a facility where they can’t access drugs, the first couple days - the first weeks - is always going to be the toughest."
"And that recording needs context - he was coming down off drugs, craving drugs, wanting drugs. 3 weeks later, he was in a different headspace."
McGuire asked if there was any hope for normality in the life of Ben Cousins moving forward, to which Tudori said he hopes so.
"Yesterday was a really big setback - he’ll need to now make a decision as to how he’ll deal with life once he’s released," he said.
"I’m confident this will be a real wake-up call for Ben."
"I think once he’s out he will have the desire to check himself into a residential drug rehabilitation."
Listen to the chat from this morning here: