Jesse Lingard on mental health struggles: “I could have easily quit in lockdown. I could have been like ‘nah, I don’t want to do it, I quit, I give up’. But the fight in me always brings me back to life.
Not quit football, just have a time-out, really. I was going into games happy sitting on the bench, and that’s not me.
My mind wasn’t there, I wasn’t focused at all. I was thinking about other things, and obviously bottling it all up trying to play football, you’re tense, you’re stressed and you can’t do it.
There were some days where I used to have a game at 8pm and we’d go to the hotel in the afternoon, I’d sleep from two until four, shut my curtains in the dark, and then wake up in the dark and you don’t get any sunlight.
So I was advised by the doctors, as soon as you get up in the morning, jump out of bed, open the curtains and even the little things can really change your attitude.
I opened up to United and told them what I was going through, what my mum was going through and they’re always there to help. I’ve had other doctors that have helped which has been brilliant and during the lockdown I got my head together.
When I finally opened up and everyone understood it was like, ‘oh, that’s why’, so now it’s just me getting my head back together, football and helping my mum, and I don’t have time for anything else really.” [@wearepresenting]