Premiership football stars and Prince William discuss mental health - BBC

we all know men are far more comfortable

talking about physical fitness than

mental fitness so today we've gathered

some of the biggest names from the world

of football

welcome they've agreed to sit down with

the Duke of Cambridge to try and change

that before we like officially kick off

can I deal with the one elephant in the

room what do we call you William come

William

yeah okay a Prouty having people are you

in this room talking about stuff like

this will genuinely make a real

difference to a lot of people so I

suppose that more honest we can be

willing to be frail and talk about

things that we have struggled with or

have that conversation with each other I

think that will really have an impact

tell us why

blokes sat together talking about mental

fitness why is that something which

really resonates with you why is it so

important to you I think guys in general

finding a difficult open up they find it

very difficult to talk about their

feelings guys see feelings as weaknesses

sometimes and they see that always gotta

be tough always gonna be strong always

got to be doing you know getting it

right and our stuff is look there's no

male pressure I think around around lots

are things suicide for instance is one

of the highest killers of young men our

age 45 lass have that's an appalling

stats this should be a turning point

where we can really kind of maximize the

reach and the potential of everyone

involved to pass that message on to guys

it's okay to talk it's okay to speak

about men's health everyone's got to

have mental fitness everyone needs

mental health we all have it we've got

to normalize the whole the whole

conversation I also think it's important

to just spot things and notice things so

as much as we as men in a dressing room

or men all over the world are being told

now you know the right way forward in

terms of how to deal with mental health

is to communicate talk to each other I

think there's a responsibility as well

to notice certain things that is

happening around you some of the

struggles that you've been talking about

are exactly the same sort of things that

people watching this will have been

through Danny you've spoken really

powerfully about being depressed

how did that manifest itself for you it

was just small things really because I

was injured at the time and it was my

first serious injury and you know my

team was doing really really well you

know and I was just start watching a lot

of I went part of it and England we were

doing well and I was going into training

really angry no I wasn't what I didn't

socialize for a really long time right

away from away from football I wasn't

going out I just didn't want to do

anything and I weren't sleeping as well

and you know looking to fall out with

with with anybody and it's quite

downward spiral and and then eventually

I told my my club doctor and then you

know he put me a put me on to somebody

and yeah and that's when they diagnose

me and yells on medication do you think

now looking back talking about it was

that the best decision you ever made

yeah if I hadn't done that then you know

you just you just never know you know I

was like my uncle he committed suicide

and he did have mental health issues and

shows what potentially can happen if you

don't confine it alone Danny talking

about things before the summer we talked

about the morning of the game about the

impact and how brave I felt he'd been in

speaking because it's not a weakness

actually it's a strength to be able to

talk about those things I don't think

you realized how how big an effect that

was gonna have on a wider scale did you

no no so I did an interview before we

was due to play Costa Rica you know the

morning of the game I woke up and I had

you know a hundred messages and it was

really emotional and a half time I was

running out and to come back onto the

pitch and you know two of their players

had stopped me in the tunnel and said

thank you for what I'd done and you know

that they've gone through something

similar and that's a massive moment for

that tap isn't it yeah well when that

happened I sort of realized how big it

was and you know sir it's definitely

overwhelming I'm in quite a privileged

position here with Danny because Danny

was in my dressing room as a kid when I

was a captain of the team and more one

of the leaders of the team and Danny

would come to me and other various

of the older pros in the team a very

young age and be like JJ I can't play

this weekend I need to go home I'm

missing out I mean I don't if you

remember kind of those feelings of

wanting to go back to Doncaster quite

often now were they warning signs kind

of when I look back that actually I'm

just not noticing it on my ignoring it

because I think you did you've almost

kind of went all Danny's was homesick

again you know wants to go but

essentially there was something maybe

building up there and you know as a team

we ignored and as a club maybe we

ignored and neglected at that point so I

think we have to notice things that

happening around us as well as though

yeah as a resolute - you know Danny

coming out and saying what he said and

I'm sorry to meet you the sort of the

center of this bit here Danny but you

know we need more role models coming out

and talking about it because in the

non-sporting world you know I'm trying

to get a lot of corporations involved so

you want chief executives of big

companies coming forward and saying well

despite my mental health issues I am

still CEO of this an enormous company

mmm it's a success story because there

are plenty of CEOs or plenty of people

who are in prominent leadership

positions or business responsibilities

who have had men's health issues but

just then talk about it yeah look where

they are bring it back to the sort of

competitive professional sports world

you know you you're trained and you have

hundreds of sessions of you know PT and

whenever trying to get the guys fit and

and and for the season but the mind is

never necessarily targeted so all the

limbs and all the body's got to work and

you've got on the hearts gotta goes for

the full 90 minutes but no one tackles

the mind so it's about this physical

fitness mental fitness it's just it's

just normalizing the conversation saying

that's you know we've got to keep an eye

on this because at the end the day this

is what does all the thinking and this

is what does all the sort of life this

you know these are just physical parts

but this is what this is what does all

the bits and so we've got to talk about

it and be aware of it

you