Phil Jones has revealed the extent that abuse from online trolls had on his mental health during his time at Manchester United.
The former defender, 32, struggled for over 14 years with knee injuries after initially tearing his meniscus at Blackburn Rovers as a teenager. He officially called time on his playing career last month.
During his time on the sidelines, Jones would actively try to avoid speaking to team-mates or going out publicly due to the mental anguish he was going through.
He became almost a figure of ridicule among fans online due to his recurring injuries - and he admits that 'trauma' took a toll. 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.
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“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.”
Jones attempted to stay off social media in a bid to block out external noise but it was unavoidable, with friends filling him in.
Jones would start heading in late for physio sessions to avoid well-meaning team-mates checking in on him and even attempted to hide his identity in public to avoid people who would judge him for being injured, he added on The High Performance Podcast.
“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.”
Jones has gone into coaching since hanging up his boots after return to Old Trafford to coach United's academy. He admits retirement was, in some ways, a "relief".
After having his meniscus removed at Manchester United, playing with bone rubbing on bone took its toll. As well as strong medication, he required injections in his knee to play.
He adds: “My knee would swell. I’d be on compression boots, I’d be on the ice, I’d be in the pool, recovery, trying to get every inflammation down.
“I would start getting really, really sharp pains every time I passed the ball. Incredible amount of pain. When I look back now I think ‘wow’, I give myself a pat on the back for getting through those periods.
“Players and staff knew I had a bad knee but I hid it really well.”
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