FORMER Newcastle United star Gary Speed sent text messages talking in “terms of taking his life” just days before his wife found him dead at their home, an inquest heard.

Louise Speed told a coroner’s court how her husband had sent her the text days before he died. But Louise said he then “dismissed” the message and told her he was “excited” about the future with her and their two sons.

In the final hours before his death, it emerged the pair “had words” after returning home from a dinner party at a friend’s place. She said: “We walked in the house and we had an exchange of words about something and nothing.”

The next morning she found 42-year-old Speed dead in the garage of their Cheshire home last November.

Coroner Nicholas Rheinberg ruled that there was no evidence to suggest Speed had intentionally killed himself and it may have been accidental.

In a narrative verdict, Mr Rheinberg said the cause of death was hanging but added “the evidence does not sufficiently determine whether this was intentional or accidental”.

The inquest heard that investigators believed Mr Speed had been sitting in his garage.

Mr Rheinberg said: “It seems likely that Mr Speed was sitting for some time with a ligature around his neck.

“It may have been that this was some sort of dramatic gesture, not normally in Mr Speed’s character, but nonetheless, a possibility.” Mr Rheinberg said it was a “possibility” he was sat there for some time and he “nodded off to sleep” with the ligature still around his neck.