Jessie Lingard admits to drinking to dull the pain during his time at Manchester United.

While some people use therapy to relax, the former United winger admits to drinking heavily to cope with the pressure.

Lingard, who joined Nottingham Forest at the start of this season, recalls how his mother was admitted to a hospital in 2019 due to depression. He said the unfortunate ordeal impacted him as he had to care for two of his younger siblings.

He laments in an interview on mental health awareness

“Mentally I weren’t there, I’d be on the pitch but I didn’t want to play,” he said. “I didn’t want to quit football, if a lockdown didn’t come I would have needed a break.” 

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Due to his poor performances on the pitch, the winger would receive a lot of backlash and abuse. He revealed that It was too much to handle it happening at a time when he already had other issues to deal with.

“I wasn’t really the big brother they wanted at the time because they would always get the fun, the smiley, bubbly Jesse, but at that time I was going through my own stuff anyway, so I was just on autopilot.”

“I would drink before going to bed.”

Lingard admitted to falling into a depression: “I would drink before going to bed. I needed something to try and take the pain away, something to put me at ease so that I could try and forget somehow, and that only made it ten times worse.”

The winger appears to be in a better frame of mind now and settling well at Forest.

Overall, he has 29 goals in 179 Premier League games and assisted on 14 occasions.

Lingard will be eager to relaunch his career this season as the League enters its final stretch.

He has played 14 games for Nottingham Forest this season in the Premier League, starting 11 of them, and has yet to score.