Matthew Perry ‘was doing really well’ before his death: pickleball coach

Matthew Perry’s pickleball coach, Matt Manasse, shared insight into the late actor’s love for the sport he was playing hours before his tragic death.

“He thought it was something that could help with his recovery and he was doing an awesome job,” Manasse said in an interview for PEOPLE on Sunday.

The coach added that the actor loved the sport and would play it five times a week. He was also competitive and improved a lot in the game, while making everybody laugh, and cared for everybody.

The FRIENDS actor passed away on Saturday night, at the age of 54, from apparent drowning in his hot tub. It was reported that Perry was found unresponsive in a jacuzzi by his assistant after playing two-hour pickleball game earlier in the day.

According to Manasse, the pickleball game served as an outlet for the actor. It helped him with his sobriety following his decades-long struggle with drug and alcohol addiction. As a matter of fact, Perry was also helping out others.