Former Chelsea star Wayne Bridge makes a passionate plea for more mental health support as he reflects on the struggles he faced during his playing days.
Bridge is 43 years old and retired from professional football in May 2014. He made almost 150 appearances for Stamford Bridge before moving to Manchester City, West Ham and other big-name clubs. His career ended after a stint at Reading in the Championship.
After his football career, Bridge appeared on ITV’s I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! and Channel 4’s SAS: Who Dares Wins. Remarkably, he won the latter after a tougher than usual journey across the El Morado glacier in Chile.
However, while participating in this quasi-military reality training program, Bridge was confronted with his own undiagnosed mental health issues, reports the Mirror.
Speaking as part of ‘Talk More Than Football’, a mental health campaign launched by Three and Chelsea, Bridge admitted that he only began to talk about his anxiety and depression during a frank conversation with a doctor and then-presenter Ant Middleton while taking part in Who Dares Wins.
“I didn’t seek help,” Bridge admitted in a chat with Mirror Football, recalling the experience. “When I look back, it was when I was doing the show SAS: Who Dares Wins and I remember being led into a room and speaking to the doctor and Ant Middleton, who runs the show.”
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Bridge noted: “I didn’t know we were being filmed at the time and when we started talking they got me to open up a little bit. It reminded me of when I was at school and I had a few problems at school and my confidence suffered a lot. I felt stupid.”
“I think it originated then and even after my retirement. I went to a dinner when Glenn Hoddle was speaking and someone asked him a question about me. It was: ‘Wayne was better than he thought and I noticed he had problems with his confidence.’ He brought other players around me who encouraged me, which I didn’t know about.”
“Hoddle was ahead of his time. He had a psychiatrist in football, which to my knowledge was never the case. I think it was a bit hard for the players to accept that because they have the male ego and masculinity to just carry on. I definitely had problems with my confidence.”
Despite making 300 appearances in the top flight, the former England international often struggled with self-esteem issues, significant injuries and fierce competition for positions.
Bridge struggled with his mental health during his playing days and admitted that he never sought help. When asked if speaking about his problems earlier would have made his career easier, he replied: “I think so. Look, life is hard and I feel stupid talking about it because there are people in this world who are much worse off than me and have big problems.”
“It’s hard to talk and that’s why I take my hat off to anyone who talks because it helps people and there will always be people out there saying ‘you can do it’ and ‘you can do it’. So hats off to anyone who goes out and talks because it helps more people than they think.”
“More needs to be done in schools from a young age and I think it probably would have helped me if I had spoken to someone more about my confidence issues. I probably would have gone into games more confident and taken until the final whistle to get going rather than being ready beforehand because of my confidence issues.”
“When you think about the football fans out there, that’s an incredible number,” Bridge continued. “It’s scary. Anyone who comes out and speaks from a platform doesn’t have it easy at all and you have to take your hat off to them if they do it and they will help people.”
“I’ve seen it with my wife and I’ve seen it with other people. They’ve come out and talked, and that’s helped other people have the courage to talk to a family member or seek professional help. The more we do that, the better. More needs to be done.”
