in

Jesse Lingard felt ‘as low as I’d ever been’ and ‘had pretty much written myself off’ during Man Utd struggles


JESSE LINGARD has revealed the depths to which he personally sank as injury blighted his progress at Manchester United.

The midfielder was part of the England squad that thrilled the nation by reaching the 2018 World Cup semi-finals.

Jesse Lingard has been back in action for Man United this seasonCredit: AFP

But his return to Old Trafford for the 2018-19 season was spoiled by a groin injury he found difficult to shake off.

The problem haunted him for months and Lingard has revealed how it almost led him to think of quitting the game for good.

He wrote in The Players’ Tribune: “I love football. Love it to death. But there were times when I thought, ‘I just can’t do this anymore’.

“In my personal life, I buried myself in my phone. Face glued to screens. You might get a mm-hmm out of me in a conversation, but I wasn’t really listening.

“I was bottling it all up. All these emotions and all this stress.

“It went like that all season and well into the next. In a year and a half, I went from top of the world to as low as I’d ever been.”


FREE BETS: GET OVER £2,000 IN NEW CUSTOMER DEALS


Lingard struggled for playing time well into the 2020-21 season before boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer agreed to let him move to West Ham on loan.

And the 28-year-old credited the first Covid-19 lockdown in March 2020 with giving him a chance to step back from football for some much-needed rest.

He added: “When lockdown came … it’s weird to say, but despite everything, it was a good thing for me, personally. I had pretty much written myself off.

“Suddenly I got a chance to hit that reset button.”

⚽ Read our Man United live blog for the latest news and transfer gossip from Old Trafford

Man Utd show off ‘Dr Rashford MBE’ jersey after hero forward awarded honorary doctorate from University of Manchester


Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk


Tagcloud:

Jesse Lingard reveals Jose Mourinho used to FaceTime him ‘just to check in’ and he ‘made me a winner’

Dillian Whyte vs Otto Wallin: Date, UK start time, live stream, TV channel, undercard for huge O2 heavyweight fight