by Dele Alli spent six weeks in rehab in the United States in an attempt to deal with mental health issues stemming from a traumatic childhood and after becoming addicted to sleeping pills.
Alli was one of the biggest talents in English football, a member of the England squad that reached the World Cup semi-finals in 2018 after a spell in which he was a star for Mauricio Pochettino’s young Tottenham who nearly won the Premiership. League.
However, the attacking midfielder’s career has gone off the rails in recent years and he opted to give an interview to former England defender Gary Neville to discuss the issues that have been plaguing him.
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Dele Alli of Besiktas JK looks on during the Turkish Super Lig match between Fatih Karagumruk SK and Besiktas JK at Ataturk Olympic Stadium on January 31, 2023 in Istanbul, Turkey (BSR Agency/Getty Images)
Among them, Alli said in an episode of The Overlap published Thursday, was the addiction to sleeping pills that he said he was taking “just to escape reality.”
“It’s been going on for a long time, without me realizing it, the things I was doing to numb the feelings I had. I didn’t realize that she was doing it for that purpose, whether it was to drink or whatever,” she said. .
“There are things that a lot of people do, but if you abuse them and use them the wrong way and you’re not really doing them for pleasure, you’re doing it to try to chase something or hide from something, it can obviously hurt you a lot. I became addicted to sleeping pills and it’s probably a problem that’s not just me. I think it’s something that’s around more than people realize in football.”
Alli, who is currently under contract with Premier League side Everton, said he decided to check into a rehabilitation center for addiction, mental health and trauma after being told he needed surgery following his return from a loan spell at the club. Turkish Besiktas in April.
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Dele Alli of Besiktas during the Turkish Super Lig match between Besiktas and Alanyaspor at Vodafone Stadium on January 27, 2023 in Istanbul, Turkey (BSR Agency/Getty Images)
He came back from rehab three weeks ago.
“I was stuck in a bad cycle. I was trusting in things that were hurting me,” she said. “I would wake up every day and win the fight, go into training, smile, show that I was happy, but inside I was definitely losing the battle and it was time to change it.
“I couldn’t,” he added of rehab, “expect it to be the way it happened. Before you know it, he’s got all this stigma around him. It’s something people don’t want to do, go to rehab.” It definitely sounds scary. I never could have imagined how much I would get out of it and how much it would help me mentally, because I was in a bad place. There was a lot going on when I was younger that I could never understand.”
Alli, who is 27, said a friend of his birth mother molested him at age 6, then was “sent to Africa to learn discipline” and was dealing drugs at 8. He was adopted at 12.
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Artur Masuaku #25 and Dele Alli #11 of Besiktas greet the fans during the Super Lig match between Besiktas and Alanyaspor at Vodafone Park on January 27, 2023 in Istanbul, Turkey. (Photo Seskim/MB Media/Getty Images)
Alli thrived at Tottenham under Pochettino from 2015 to 2019, saying the Argentine coach “cared about me as a person before football” but never had such a good relationship with other managers.
Alli said that at 24, when Jose Mourinho was Tottenham manager, he returned to a “bad place.”
“One morning I woke up,” he said, “and I had to go to training, that’s when he stopped playing with me, I was in a bad place and I remember looking in the mirror… and he was asking if I can retire now.
“At 24, doing what I love, for me that was heartbreaking.”
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Dele Alli of Besiktas JK in action during the Turkish Super Lig match between Fatih Karagumruk SK and Besiktas JK at Ataturk Olympic Stadium on January 31, 2023 in Istanbul, Turkey (BSR Agency/Getty Images)
Alli has one year left on his Everton contract and said he is “ready for a great season”.
“Mentally, I’m probably in the best place I’ve ever been,” he said.
Harry Kane, the England captain and Alli’s former Tottenham teammate, tweeted that he was proud of Alli “for speaking up and sharing his experience to try and help others”, while Everton said the club “respect and applaud the Dele’s courage to speak about the difficulties she has faced, as well as to seek the help she needed”.
