Anton
West Ham forward Michail Antonio has revealed that he was close to quitting football after been sent into a spiral of depression caused by the inconsistency in team selection at the club.
The 32 year old Jamaican International explained that through the help of his close family he found the right positive path back from depression.
Antonio opened up about his thoughts to Under The Surface Podcast
Antonio said
“There was one time where it really affected me”
“I’m a person that likes to control things – if I feel that I can control things then I’ll deal with things. But this time where it did hit me, I felt like I fell into a depression”.
“I started the very first game of the season. The next game, I wasn’t in the squad. The next game, I started. The next game, I wasn’t in the squad. Then I came off the bench. The next game I started and got pulled off at half-time. And that just kept happening”.
“Even if I was playing well, it just kept happening to me. No matter what I was doing, I wasn’t good enough. If I was having a great game, it wasn’t good enough. So I just felt powerless, and there was nothing I could do.”
Antonio continued
“I don’t like showing emotion and I like dealing with things, but tears were just falling from my eyes in bed”.
“My Mrs was laying next to me in bed and I didn’t say anything, just tears falling – she looked up and said ‘Are you alright?’ and I said yeah, I’m fine, but she said ‘You can’t be fine, you’re crying’, and I just said ‘I don’t know if I want to play football anymore’.
“I said to her ‘I don’t know if I want to play anymore, I’m thinking about retiring’, because I knew if I went to West Ham and said I want to leave, they weren’t going to want to sell me. So I was honestly just thinking about leaving football and retiring.”
Antonio Speaking Out
Antonio discussed the importance in speaking out. He said
“Me talking to my Mrs, my brother and my agent took a bit of the weight off me, enough for me to keep going to training and stuff like that, but what really made a difference for me was being able to go out there and play, and kept playing consistently”.
“It became more of a norm as a footballer – when you’re playing well you get your opportunity and you keep playing. When life and football became more normal, then I dealt with it and that’s how I managed to pull myself out”.
“The football put me into depression, but the football also pulled me out”.
“That one time, I needed to talk. Even though I didn’t want to because my wife had to say to me ‘no, you’re not okay’, but as soon as I spoke to her, the next day I spoke to my agent and that same day I spoke to my brother and it did help me massively”.
