Footballers Battle Mental Issues Too – Bellerin

Arsenal defender, Hector Bellerin has come out to reveal that he suffered from mental health issues during his recent injuries at the club. Bellerin recently revealed that he actually turned to alcohol on his path to recovery.

According to him, the recent injury is very new to him even if he has seen teammates go through it in the past, but his co-players and family was really helpful.

Hector added that footballers also battle mental issues like normal human beings, and when their football identity gets taken from them while they recover, players definitely find it difficult.

His words, “It was the first time that I had got injured like that, and I had friends and teammates that had gone through it before, I had my family next to me, but I didn’t know exactly what was going to happen to me.”

“I talk about an experience when I came back and I wasn’t really training, and I started going out a lot, I started drinking and all this stuff and you know for a footballer that’s not what you’re supposed to say but it’s the truth.”

“We have our issues, we have our mental health problems. And when football, which is basically your identity, gets taken out of you, we find it difficult.”

“Obviously London is a town that offers a lot of distractions and it’s really easy when you don’t feel you have a responsibility – obviously I knew I had to recover, but I didn’t have to train or play – my mind kind of just went elsewhere.”

“I was lucky enough to have players and coaches who knew what I was doing, and they said ‘look Hector, that’s not the right way to do it’, and I felt so lucky about that.”

“But also I’m not ashamed of it, I feel like it’s what happened to me and it’s just the way I was feeling and for me that was the best way of coping with my feelings, which is obviously not the best anyway, you don’t help anything, you just delay it.”

“But that’s how I felt like doing then, and I thought I could get away with it and I learned so much from it. Now the last thing I do when I have an injury is drink because I know how bad that is. Sometimes you just don’t care or it’s difficult.”