West Ham United striker Michail Antonio has revealed he is having therapy after falling out of love with football.
Undoubtedly one of the best in his position, Antonio opened up about how the end of his marriage and childhood trauma left him with mental health struggles.
According to him, this made him unable to celebrate West Ham’s Europa Conference League final victory last season.
Speaking on the High Performance Podcast to presenter Jake Humphrey and author Damian Hughes, Antonio revealed how off-pitch problems left him “mentally drained” and hoping he would get injured so he didn’t have to play.
“I just started disliking the game. I began therapy because I was really struggling,” Antonio said. “I was going through my divorce and stuff, and I honestly couldn’t get my head around it. After we won (the Europa Conference League), the whole team went out, the gaffer went out, got steaming, a couple of boys didn’t sleep for two days, just got drunk for two days – I was asleep on the coach and went back to the hotel.
“I was just mentally drained because of everything that was going on outside of my football and then I went back to the hotel and went to sleep while everyone was out partying.”
Antonio’s issues started around Dec 2022 when he realised that he was no longer enjoying football.
West Ham United’s Michail Antonio during the Premier League match between West Ham United and Luton Town at London Stadium (Photo by Rob Newell – CameraSport via Getty Images)
Though he was able to adapt, things got worse when Antonio split up with wife Debbie Whittle after they married in 2017.
Antonio sought the help of the club’s medical staff while West Ham and the Professional Footballers’ Association were also able to offer specialist counsellors.
However, Antonio branched out to find his own therapist.
“I started therapy because I was really struggling. And how I grew up, it was never a thing,” he said. “I thought therapy was for crazy people. But therapy changed my life. At first it was awkward, I’m not going to lie. You’re sat in the room, someone was there and goes, ‘How are you?’
“And your natural response is ‘Fine’. So he’s like, ‘So why are you here?’ I was like, ‘To be honest, like, football, I’m struggling with football, I split up with my missus’.”
He added: “My life was a bit turned upside-down because obviously I’m splitting up with my missus, my wife, and also, I’m not performing on the pitch and things are just not going well for me.
“And then I’m a person where I’d never cry. And as I was talking to him, I just burst into tears. It was uncontrollable. That gave me some type of relief. And then like my chest felt like clear.”
