Jesse Lingard considered leaving football for a short time last year, he revealed to the English entertainment show Presenting on Youtube. The 28-year-old West Ham United midfielder, who is hired from Manchester United, has long struggled with the depression that has plagued his mother most of her life. Lingard took care of his younger brother and sister during his mother’s treatment, which led to mental health problems for himself.
The interview with Lingard was already recorded in January, but is only now being released. The midfielder has now been able to give the mental problems a place and he seems to be working on his second youth at West Ham, where he has scored nine times since he came on loan from Manchester United in January. “I’ve had competitions where I was happy to sit on the bench,” says Lingard. “I’m not like that. I said to my brother the other day,” Remember how fine I was sitting on the couch? ” “I didn’t have to play because the mind wasn’t there. I wasn’t focused at all. I just thought about other things and bottled everything up. That doesn’t work if you want to perform as a footballer.”
And so Lingard decided to speak openly about his feelings in the hope that a change would occur. That seems to have paid off now that the midfielder is suddenly back in the picture for the English national team. “It feels like you’re not the same person. I felt like I wasn’t Jesse Lingard. Even in matches I felt like the game was just passing me. Like I didn’t want to be there. It was really crazy. Me then opened up to United and told me what I was going through, what my mom was going through. They are always there to help me. ”
“I feel like lockdown has changed me in some way,” Lingard continued. “I looked back at old World Cup matches and thought: yes, that’s the real Jesse Lingard. Last season I just didn’t have it at all and you could see that. My brother, who lives with me, saw that too. He made a video of me showing me lying on the couch staring in front of me for three minutes He thought, what’s he going through? He’s got the weight of the world on his shoulders. And even he didn’t know what I was going through then. “
Lingard’s mother has spent most of her life dealing with depression and was treated for it in London last year, after which Lingard took care of his brother and sister. “I feel like I’ve learned that when you open up, you feel like a butterfly. Believe you can fly. It’s a great feeling. Luckily I was able to put all that behind me and concentrate on it. football and my family. “
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