Work by charities, the PFA, clubs and players is helping the sport open up, though no one claims to have all the answers

Gary Speed’s family are inviting fans to take part in the Speed Cycle, a fundraising challenge in which supporters will visit each of his former clubs. The cycle will begin at St James’ Park in Newcastle before moving on to Leeds, Sheffield and Bolton before it finishes at Goodison Park in Liverpool. All the money raised will go towards building a mental health facility close to Goodison. Speed took his own life in 2011 and his widow, Louise, explained last year that he would often explain away occasional low moods as tiredness: “Looking back now,” she said, “I do wonder if it was something else, but blokes don’t talk, do they?”

The need to encourage players to be more open about depression and mental health issues has never been more pressing. Michael Bennett, the director of welfare at the Professional Footballers’ Association, says Speed’s tragic death had a significant impact on the number of calls the PFA received from players throughout the sport. It proved to be a watershed moment in players’ attitudes and openness in admitting to their own issues.

Bennett, whose clubs included Charlton, Brentford and Brighton, is determined to offer the support he lacked when he was out injured for nine months with a ruptured cruciate ligament in the 1990s. “It was more of a mental battle than a physical one,” says Bennett of the growing sense of worthlessness and isolation he experienced. “I desperately needed support but there was none available so after I gave up playing I wanted to offer that service to the players.”

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After spending some time in non-league, Bennett decided to become a trained counsellor and, shortly after qualifying in 2004, he set up his own consultancy before joining the PFA in 2008 as an education officer. Bennett soon realised the PFA needed a dedicated department to handle players’ emotional wellbeing. “I was travelling around the country talking to players but it was far too big a role for one person.”

Bennett made a significant breakthrough in 2013, after holding discussions with the late Peter Kay, who co-founded the Sporting Chance rehabilitation clinic with Tony Adams. As a result of these talks PFA members were given access to the clinic’s network of over 100 counsellors. Alongside this confidential service, a 24-hour telephone hotline was set up to provide added support. “In 2016 we had 160 players approaching us,” says Bennett. “By 2017 it rose to just over 400 and last year there were 438 players. It is interesting to see that the proportion of current and former players, which used to be evenly split, has now become 70-30.”

The PFA has made a significant investment in this aspect of player welfare. It holds regular workshops at clubs as well as hosting Injured, an annual conference about mental health that attracted delegates from all 92 English league clubs last year. The ultimate objective for Bennett is to have someone at each club who is qualified to deal with mental health.

Within the clubs themselves, a more open and accepting approach to mental health issues has developed over the last few years. Player care officers are now commonplace in clubs. Lorna McClelland, now at HIX Sports Management, was one of the first to take on such a role, spending 15 years at Aston Villa after joining when Graham Taylor was manager and she has seen a growth in the appreciation of these issues over the last decade. “Clubs are now taking action,” McClelland says, “and they are putting in systems to both prevent these issues developing as well as being able to treat them properly when they do arise.”

As a consequence of the various actions and initiatives undertaken by the PFA and the clubs, there has been some dismantling of the stigma surrounding mental health. The reticence in talking about such issues has also been reduced as a consequence of a few high-profile examples, such as Rio Ferdinand and Danny Rose, who have gone public on their struggles with depression.

Marvin Sordell is one of the most eloquent players to have talked about mental health. The Northampton Town forward acknowledges that, while inroads have been made in creating a more open environment, significant barriers still exist. “Clubs have become more accepting and tolerant,” says Sordell. “But there is still a prevailing attitude from some who view mental health problems as a sign of weakness. They have only just scratched the surface. There isn’t enough in place for players and it is so reactive, there is much more we can do to be proactive and enable players to not to have to go to those depths as I did myself.”

Sordell remembers how difficult it was to seek help. “At that time when you are in those dark places, you don’t want to be a burden. You don’t want to inflict your misery or pain on family members let alone somebody you don’t know.” Sordell did turn to Sporting Chance but he found the process a little cumbersome. “You have to make two or three phone calls before you can get an appointment with a counsellor and that is a big issue as you don’t want to speak to people to explain how you are feeling because you feel so low that you are embarrassed. You need a more direct link.”

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Sordell agrees with Bennett that all clubs should have an objective professional in place who is readily available to the players. “Clubs should have an in-house counsellor or psychologist as part of the playing staff, who is around the players all the time and importantly doesn’t report back to the coaching staff. I have spoken to many, many players about this and if there was somebody at the club who was neutral and they could trust, they would confide in them.”

With the PFA, the majority of clubs and certain players all taking steps to address some of these issues, progress has certainly been made since Speed’s death. But for all of those efforts over the last few years, there is a broad consensus that there is much more that needs to be done before a proper system of care is fully established and there is an environment conducive to footballers openly discussing their own problems and seeking help. “It needs to be instant,” Sordell says. “You are sharing your deepest, darkest secrets as you are talking about your emotions and so a phone call is never going to be enough.”

• In the UK, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international suicide helplines can be found at www.befrienders.org.

• This article is from the author of The Agony and the Ecstasy

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