Former Manchester United star opens up on Old Trafford ‘trauma’

Former Manchester United star Phil Jones has opened up on his difficult experiences as a Manchester United player including the injury crisis he suffered and several years of trolling and abuse. 

Phil Jones joined Manchester United from Balckburn Rovers in 2011 and was seen as a highly-rated English prospect who could become a major player for the Red Devils.

Unfortunately for Jones, 32 he suffered several big injuries that hampered his career at Old Trafford.

The former United number four especially struggled with knee injuries that kept him sidelined for long periods after every occurrence.

It was a difficult experience for the star who felt he wanted to isolate himself during his time away from the pitch.

Phil Jones reveals how trolls and injuries affected his Mental Health at Manchester United.

It was a difficult experience for Joens to go through, he had become a star prospect at Old Trafford but could not fulfil his potential due to his career being plagued with serious injuries.

Speaking on The High-Performance Podcast via the Mirror about his experiences, Jones said: “Anybody who tells you that it doesn’t is lying. And as footballers, you have to put this mask on. You get paid a lot of money so you are not allowed to have feelings or emotions.

“The physical injuries made me mentally weak at times. Obviously, people will ask, ‘He is always injured?’ as though they think that I wake up one day and think, ‘Oh, yeah, I fancy being injured today’.

“But my coping mechanism was to be silent, put my guard up, my shield up around with my really close family. I wouldn’t even really communicate with my friends that well.

“You’d go past people in the street and they’d say something and it would really aggravate you and get to you. You just hear people whispering, ‘Oh there he is, f***ing injury-prone’. People say, ‘You shouldn’t take that money then’.

“If they only knew what I was doing behind the scenes to get right. Flip that on its head and say, ‘I’ll tell you what then, what I’ll do is I’ll take the money away from you and see if you go back into work’. Everybody’s got to earn money.

“I found it really hard to go to restaurants for years. You put your head down when you’re walking through crowds and stuff. I didn’t want people to spot me.”