Former Nottingham Forest midfielder Andy Reid has spoken about the “dark time” he went through a few years ago.
The 37-year-old has opened up about his mental health at a time when he was facing the end of his playing career and had lost both his parents as well as one of his closest friends.
A groin injury forced Reid to hang up his boots in 2016 - after returning to the City Ground for a second spell five years earlier - while his parents, Dinah and Bill, passed away within a year of one another.
“It really scared me,” the Irishman told inews. “And for a long time, I didn’t know what to do.
“That period I was very, very down and would have been drinking quite a bit and I would have been taking things out on the missus.
“I lost both my parents within a year of each other, that really spun my head out. I really struggled.
“It was like another hammer blow. Where do I go from here? Football coming to an end, just lost both your parents.
“Our family was very close. It was such a massive thing.
“I’m not sure depression is the way of putting it. All I know is it was a dark time.
“I would’ve had myself down as being pretty mentally strong and I think people that would’ve played with me and that knew me would’ve said the same thing.
“If something like this can happen to me, it can happen to anyone.
“I needed to speak to someone. I went to counselling.”
A good friend of Reid’s, local Nottingham musician Roy Foster (whose stage name was Roy Stone) took his own life four years ago after struggling with mental health problems.
“That was something within all that which really affected me,” Reid added.
“He wasn’t well and everyone was trying to help him as much as they could.
“It was a massive shock, because nobody ever thinks something like that is going to happen.”
Reid, now manager of Republic of Ireland Under-18s, says a greater understanding of players’ mental health is needed in football.
“One of the worst things about it for me was coming in and doing rehab,” he said. “At Forest’s training ground there is a big window that looks out on to the pitch, so I might be on the treadmill or the bike looking out and see all the lads walking out laughing and joking and training. That used to set me off.
“So then Steve (Devine, then-Forest physio) would get me training at different times so I wouldn’t see the lads.”
Reid now believes that clubs who can afford to should have a full-time psychologist available to work with players.
“I find it staggering that all top clubs who have a budget for a psychologist wouldn’t have one,” he said.
“I understand not all clubs have a budget for one, but I think they should try to find one.
“We train our bodies every single day.
“When footballers aren’t on the pitch, they train to do the technical aspects of the game.
“Your brain is what tells you what to do. So how can you not train your brain as well? It’s massively important.”
