Everton’s Dele Alli has opened up about his struggles with mental health.
Alli endured a difficult season-long loan spell at Besiktas which culminated barely 12 months after making the move to Goodison Park from Tottenham.
But the 27-year-old has revealed that he underwent a spell at a rehab facility in the United States after acknowledging he was in a ‘bad place mentally’.
In a wide-ranging interview with his old England coach Gary Neville for The Overlap, Alli detailed his experience in hopes of inspiring others to seek help.
“Now is probably the right time for me to tell people what has been going on,” admited Alli.
“It is tough to talk about because it is quite recent and it is something I have hid for a long time and I’m scared to talk about it. But I think it is the right thing to do.
“When I came back from Turkey I came in and I found out I needed an operation.
“I was in a bad place mentally and I decided to go to a modern day rehab facility for mental health.
“They deal with mental health, addiction, trauma, it was something that I felt like it was time for me. With things like that you can’t be told to go there.
“I think you have to know and you have to make the decision yourself, or it’s not going to work.
“I was caught in a bad cycle. I was relying on things that were doing me harm and I was waking up every day and I was winning the fight, going into training smiling, showing that I was happy.
“But inside I was definitely losing the battle and it was time for me to change it. When I got injured and told I needed the operation I could feel the feelings I had when the cycle begins and I didn’t want it to happen anymore.
“So I went there for six weeks. Everton were amazing about it. They supported me 100% and I will be grateful for them forever.
“Whatever happens in the future I think for them to be so open and honest and understanding – I think I couldn’t have asked for anything more in a time when I was making the biggest decision of my life.”