Mauricio Pochettino has reached out to Dele Alli following the 27-year-old’s emotional interview with Gary Neville. The 27-year-old midfielder was once considered as one of the most exciting youngsters in the world, but his career has stuttered in recent years.
In an interview with Gary Neville on The Overlap, the former Tottenham star opened up on his life and the challenges he’s faced in his career. The former Manchester United defender began by asking Alli: “Are you okay?”
Dele Alli replied: “I think so, it’s a question I’ve definitely been asked a lot, but this is the first time in a long time I can say yeah and mean it. I’ve got that passion back for football. Now is probably the right time to tell people what’s been going on, it’s tough to talk about because it’s quite recent and it’s something I’ve hidden for a long time and I’m scared to talk about it, but I think it’s the right thing to do. When I came back from Turkey I came in and found out I needed an operation and I was in a bad place mentally and I decided to go to a modern-day rehab facility for mental health, they deal with addiction, mental health and trauma and I felt like it was time for me. You can’t be told to go there, you have to know and make the decision yourself or it’s not going to work. I was caught in a bad cycle, 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 time for me to change it. I went there for six weeks, Everton were amazing about it.”
Alli has been sent lots of heartwarming messages from supporters, former colleagues and fellow professionals on social media since the interview was published on July 13. One of whom being Pochettino, who captioned an image of himself hugging the Englishman with a blue heart.
