Footballers need more support with addiction and mental health, PFA told

The Professional Footballers’ Association has been urged to do more to prevent addictions and mental health problems from escalating after Dele Alli, the Everton midfielder, spoke out about his addiction to sleeping pills.

Clarke Carlisle, a former chairman of the PFA who now works as a mental health consultant, said: “PFA intervention only comes on request. It’s a reactive measure. So invariably, they only get involved when players are having problems. And they’re in like crisis mode or disaster recovery.”

Carlisle, a former Burnley defender who faced his own mental health struggles as a player, said prescription addiction was a “growing issue” and added: “There’s a responsibility on the clubs because they are the employers.” 

He said a team of PFA representatives should be available daily at professional clubs to respond to players’ wellbeing and mental health needs and be separate from their coaching team. 

“The PFA is the players’ union, they need to ensure that they can increase their capacity to be proactive on these issues.

“I think their relationship with clubs and with the leagues needs to be on a far more interactive level, where they can be present on a daily basis so that they can identify the various signs and signals that players are entering into any kind of behaviours that are going to be detrimental to them.” Carlisle said increasing numbers of late matches made it harder for footballers to rest between games. “Trying to fit in with the media schedule means there are a lot of evening fixtures and that exacerbates the problem,” Carlisle said.

He also said that the narrowing margin for success at elite level encouraged players to maximise sleep. “If you can find anything that gives you that extra 0.1%