Nottingham Forest’s Jesse Lingard has come out to say that he turned to drink to try and take the pain away as he struggled to deal with his career at Manchester United. He recently had his say while speaking to the press, and fans have been reacting.
According to him, he just needed something to take his mind off how fast his MUFC career was declining months back, and the depression was so bad that he simply needed a break from the pitch.
Lingard added that even if MUFC offered him a new contract to stay, he just knew he wasn’t going to play.
His words, “I needed something to try and take the pain away,”
“And put me at ease somehow. I was drinking before bed, having a nightcap.”
“I look back now and think, ‘what was I doing that for?’ I was trying to forget what was going on. But it makes it 10 times worse.”
On his mother, “The depression was so bad she couldn’t really cope any more and she needed to go away and get help,”
“But leaving me with my little sister who was 11 at the time, and my little brother who was 15, for me, I was still going through my own things as well.”
“So I wasn’t really the big brother they wanted at the time. I just wasn’t there mentally.”
On Ole, “To be abused like that tipped it,”
“I didn’t want to be on the pitch, I didn’t want to play.”
“I didn’t want to quit football. I never would have quit football, but I needed a break.”
“We kept it close-knit, but even just to have Ole say, ‘how is your mum? How is she doing?’ helped to let people know what I was going through.”
“People probably thought I was happy to leave, but I needed to leave,”
I wasn’t playing.”
“I got offered a contract, but what’s the point? I wasn’t going to play. Yeah, it’s the biggest club in the world, but happiness is more important for me.”
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