England midfielder Dele Alli has revealed his struggles with mental health, while also admitting to sexual abuse as a child.
Alli said these during an interview with ex-England international Gary Neville on The Overlap.
The 27-year-old has admitted for the first time that he went to rehab in an effort to tackle his reliance on sleeping pills.
While admitting that he takes blame for his personal issues, he has stated he now wants to help others who are struggling with similar problems.
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He said: “When I came from Turkey, I found out I needed an operation. I was in a bad place mentally. Decided to go to a modern day rehab facility for mental health, addiction and trauma.
Dele Alli admits he was “caught in a bad cycle”
“It felt like it was time for me. With things like that, you can’t be told to go there. I made the decision to go there. I was caught in a bad cycle, I was relying on things that were doing me harm.
“I was waking up every day and was winning the fight, going into training, smiling, showing I was happy but inside I was definitely losing the battle and it was definitely time to change it.
“At six, I was molested,” the Everton midfielder told Neville.
“There were a few incidents that can give you a brief understanding,” he said.
“At six, I was molested by my mum’s friend who was at the house a lot. My mum was an alcoholic.”
“I was sent to Africa to learn discipline. Then I was sent back. Seven, I started smoking. Eight I started dealing drugs, selling drugs. An older person told me they wouldn’t stop a kid. So I’d ride around with my football and then underneath I’d have the drugs.”
Going to the rehab really helped me
Speaking further on his struggles with form on the field of play, Dele said going into rehab “sounds scary.”
“When I got injured and they told me I needed surgery. I could feel the feelings I had when the cycle begins and I didn’t want it to happen anymore so I went there for six weeks (rehab).
“Everton were amazing about it, they were always supportive of me 100 per cent and I’ll be grateful for them forever. Whatever happens in the future, for them to be so open, honest and understanding, I couldn’t have asked for anything more in that time when I was probably making the biggest decision of my life, something I was scared to do.
“But I was happy I’d done it and to be honest, I couldn’t have expected it to go the way it did. Before you hear about it, it has its own stigma. It’s something people don’t want to do, going into rehab, it definitely sounds scary.
“I could never have imagined how much I would get from it and how much it helped me mentally because I was in a bad place.
“I got out three weeks ago. If I’m being honest I probably wouldn’t have wanted to talk about it this soon but I’m in a really good place to talk about this now.”
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Addiction can “damage you a lot”
Alli joined Everton from Tottenham in 2022. However, he has struggled to find the form he previously exhibited during the early years of his once burgeoning career.
He appeared just 13 times for Everton under former Everton manager Frank Lampard. The former Milton and Keynes player was subsequently shipped out to Turkish side Besiktas on loan.
After admitting to his sleeping pill addiction, Alli says it is a big problem in football that needs controlling.
“It’s been going on for a long time (my addiction), the things I was doing to numb the feelings I had. I didn’t realise it was for that purpose, whether it be drinking or whatever.
“There are things a lot of people do but if you abuse it and use it in the wrong way and you’re not actually doing it for the pleasure, you’re doing it to try and chase something or hide from something, it can obviously damage you a lot.
“I got addicted to sleeping tablets and it’s probably a problem that not only I have. I think it’s something that it’s going around more than people realise in football.
“I was never really dealing with the problem”
“Hopefully me coming out and speaking about it can help people. Don’t get me wrong, they work. I think with our schedule, you have a game, you have to be up early to train, the adrenaline and stuff.
“To take a sleeping tablet to sleep and be ready is fine but when your dopamine system is broken as I am, it can obviously have the reverse effect because it does work for the problems you want to deal with and that’s the problem. It works until it doesn’t.
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“Yeah I definitely abused them too much. Don’t get me wrong, I’d stop sometimes and go a few months without them but I was never really dealing with the problem. It got really bad at some points. I didn’t understand how bad it was, but I was never really dealing with the route of the problem.”
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