Basketball and AFLW legend Erin Philips has revealed the depths of her despair when she battled body dysmorphia as a young woman, detailing how she wanted to “cut my stomach off” so she would look skinnier.

The Olympic gold medallist and AFLW three-time flag winner’s raw admissions about her body image struggles are part of a powerful one-one-one interview with Hamish McLachlan on Unfiltered, airing on Channel 7 tonight.

“I just started spiralling, not really wanting to eat a lot, starving myself a lot,” she says.

“I remember standing in front of a mirror with a pair of scissors, just dreaming that I could just cut my stomach off and have a six pack, really horrific stuff for a young kid.

“I didn’t know what I was chasing, like I looked back and look at myself and go ‘it was crazy, there’s nothing wrong with me’.

“I was trying to cope through a stage of my life where we were playing in body suits (basketball) that came with a whole set of challenges and issues.”

Philips, who was the first AFLW player inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame this year alongside Daisy Pearce, was plagued by self-loathing as a teenager when she started playing in the WNBL.

After starting her WNBL career for the Adelaide Lightning, Phillips was drafted to the Connecticut Sun in the WNBA in 2005.

She enjoyed a decorated career in America, winning two championships with the Indiana Fever (2012) and Phoenix Mercury (2014), and played for five teams across nine years.

She won a WNBL title with Adelaide in 2008.

Phillips also solidified her spot in the national team and was a member of the Opals squad that won silver at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Phillips also revealed her “obsession” with her stomach and “having a six pack” led to her taking diet pills aged just 17.

“I didn’t really want to eat too much before games, before getting into a body suit. So it became this spiral, which I can’t even pinpoint when it really started,” she says.

“I don’t know how I got there, but I’m so grateful that I got out of it and started to appreciate what my body’s able to do rather than what it looks like.

“I don’t like to post pictures of myself in bikinis with ab shots, because I think it’s irrelevant to young kids looking up at you.

“I think about if my daughters, or even my sons, were in that position where they hated what they looked like, it would kill me.”

Philips also opens up on her Olympic heartbreak after failing to lead the Opals to the podium at the 2016 Games. After being controversially overlooked for the 2012 Games in London, Phillips was back in favour four years later and was co-captain of the team in Rio.

But after sweeping their round robin group, the Opals suffered a shock loss to Serbia in the quarterfinals that ended their streak of five consecutive Olympics with a medal.

“Any time someone mentions Rio (it still affects me),” she says.

“I couldn’t talk about Rio for a year because you’re playing in the Olympics, you have a whole country behind you, you’re playing for the Opals who are so successful, you’re one of the leaders of the team.

“And yes every team can have a bad day, you don’t always get your fairytale but the consequences of losing that was just for me, was just so severe.

“I felt like I had let so many people down, an entire country down, that had hoped the Opals would at least medal, that was the standard and we should have.

“That was a failure for Australia and you were a part of that.

“They were really hard times after that, I couldn’t even stay after the Olympics, I left. I couldn’t do the closing ceremony, I just felt so much shame on myself personally.”

Phillips said she used the disappointment of Rio to fuel her stunning AFLW career, but added that she’ll never get over it.

“I’m in a place where I’ve accepted it, but I won’t get over it,” she said.

Phillips joined Adelaide for the inaugural season of the AFLW and went on to win three premierships, two league best and fairest and two AFLW grand final best on ground medals, among a host of other individual accolades.

She is part of Channel Seven’s expert commentary team for the AFLW’s milestone tenth season.

Unfiltered, featuring Erin Phillips 9.30pm Wednesday straight after The Front Bar on Seven and 7plus.