Manchester United and England legend Wayne Rooney has confessed he was “suffering inside” during his brilliant career, using alcohol to try to numb the pain.
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Wayne Rooney talks mental health battle in new documentary
Wayne Rooney has called on football to provide better mental health care after revealing his own battle with alcohol.
Rooney provided a deeply honest view of his world as England biggest star when he confessed that he was “suffering inside” throughout his playing career.
The former England captain admitted he was too embarrassed to talk about his problems to his manchester united teammates, and he’s glad the attitude is now changing, but says there’s still room for improvement.
Rooney said, “For a long period of my career, I suffered inside. I found a way to deal with it; a lot of it ended up drinking.”
“Where I felt stuck, I couldn’t go into training camp and say I was struggling with this mentally, or struggling to deal with it on my own. I couldn’t go to people like roy keane or ryan giggs and tell them: ‘Listen, I’m fighting here.
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“It’s not something you did back then, whereas now it’s much easier to do that, which is good because people recognize the mental health problem and talk about it and try to catch it early, especially with some of the young people who they’re struggling with that.
“It was a mix of everything: sometimes performance, sometimes things off the pitch, sometimes problems he might have had with a club. It all adds up.
“The best way for me to deal with it, which was the wrong way, at the time, you were just trying to deal with it, if I had a period of two days off, I would literally go to my house, in my house, and drink for two days”.
Derby boss Rooney being so open and outspoken may spark more debate and help for mental health issues within football, and it’s a brave move to speak up.
Rooney eventually saw a psychologist later in his career and has kept up those lessons with him, but admits that sometimes being angry helped him on the pitch.
He added: “When I was dealing with those issues, I was more raw on the field, more angry on the field, and actually when I learned how to deal with them, that went away because you’re putting yourself in a better frame of mind as well.
“So, I don’t know if he would have seen me become a better player, play longer. But it was a part of my life, a part of my career.”
“I’m happy with my career, but there were times where I struggled quite a bit actually.”
‘Rooney’ is available to watch on Amazon Prime Video starting Friday.
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