Former Premier League striker reveals depression struggles and calls on clubs to do more

Former Premier League striker Marvin Sordell has opened up about his depression and claimed the world of football needs to be better equipped to help footballers.

The 27-year-old, who appeared in the top flight for Burnley and is now at Burton Albion via Bolton, Coventry and Colchester, says football clubs should employ full-time counsellors.

The former England Under-21 man admitted trying to take his own life in 2013 and claimed he felt “dead inside”. He has now bravely opened up about his demons and believes the footballing community should do more to tackle its biggest taboo.

READ MORE: Mane: My parents told me pursuing football was a waste of time

READ MORE: VAR to be trialled across multiple Premier League games

When asked by the BBC2’s Victoria Derbyshire programme if he thought clubs knew he was struggling with depression during his career, he said: “I don’t know, to be honest.

“I didn’t accept [depression] until I spoke to a doctor. One of hardest things is being able to differentiate between a player being down because they’re not playing, as opposed to someone actually suffering from depression.

He added: “As a player, you’re told what to do, what to drink, what to eat, your conditioning. But when it comes to serious issues like mental health players are expected to go and speak to someone.

“It’s something the Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA) and the Football Association (FA) need to address and even if it’s not someone directly employed by the club, it could be the PFA or FA, they need to be around staff and players on a daily basis.

“They are professionals and know the difference between someone having a down day and someone who is suffering from mental health issues. It could be groundbreaking.”

The PFA has told BBC Sport that more footballers are using its welfare services but PFA head of welfare Michael Bennett said: “We still have to make our members aware of what support is in place.”

Sordell, who represented the Great Britain football team at the 2012 Olympics, has taken to writing to help his mental health, including a a poem called Denis Prose – an anagram of depression and admits he has been overwhelmed by the positive response from fans since opening up about his depression to the Guardian.

“I don’t think people are sure how the football community will react to speaking about [mental health] and how it would take them personally. It’s maybe a fear thing. Even doing the newspaper interview, I was apprehensive about how it would go and how people would react.

“But fans have been fantastic, and not just from the clubs I’ve played for. The whole football community and my team-mates have been very supportive and I’ve had lots of messages from team-mates and former team-mates.

“It tells me that it’s actually OK to have these conversations. A lot of people have got in contact and want to have this type of conversation but are not having it in a wider forum. If you start the conversation then you never know where it might lead to.”

Sordell isn’t the first footballer to reveal his struggles with depression but he does join an exclusively small club of players brave enough to be open. Tottenham left-back Danny Rose revealed he too had been struggling last season.

“It’s no secret that I’ve been through a testing time at Tottenham this season,” said Rose.

“It led to me seeing a psychologist and I was diagnosed with depression, which nobody knows about.”

“I haven’t told my mum or my dad, and they are probably going to be really angry reading this, but I’ve kept it to myself until now.

“England [national team] has been my salvation and I can’t thank the manager and the medical staff enough. It was really hard, and being referred to a doctor and psychologist by the Spurs club doctor helped me massively to cope.”

Sordell’s revelations come the same week former Chelsea goalkeeper Lenny Pidgeley retired from football at 34 after a decade long battle with depression.

The Farnborough player announced on Twitter: “I’ve never talked about my depression in the last 10 years apart from to my close friends and family but after that club statement, it seems to be out the bag.”