Ryan Sessegnon delivers an instinctive one-word answer when asked how he would sum up his time at Tottenham Hotspur: “Rollercoaster… I don’t even know where to begin.”
Since the defender joined Spurs in a £25 million move from Fulham in August 2019, he has experienced four different permanent managers, one caretaker, persistent injury problems and a loan spell in Germany during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. That combination would be a tough challenge for anyone, let alone a 21-year-old looking to establish himself in the Premier League, and Sessegnon realised he needed help.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with ESPN, Sessegnon is admirably candid about sourcing his own psychologist for sessions over Zoom after yet another fitness setback, a thigh problem that curtailed his progress on loan at Bundesliga club Hoffenheim during the 2020-21 season.
“I first started speaking to someone when I went to Germany because there was a little spell where… at the start, it started well and then there was a little problem injury-wise,” he said. “And I started thinking too much about my game. I wasn’t feeling free. I wasn’t doing things that I was doing before, so I started speaking to someone about the mental side of the game and how doubts can creep into your mind, distract you and put you down. So it was more about bringing self-belief and positivity into your thoughts.”
Although clubs are slowly addressing the long-neglected area of mental health, Manchester United became one of the latest English teams to appoint a sports psychologist in December when interim boss Ralf Rangnick hired Sascha Lense. Sessegnon’s decision to source his own counsel independently is a testament to his willingness to leave no stone unturned in pursuit of a successful career.
Sessegnon has never spoken publicly in this detail before about seeing a psychologist, and he does so now while recovering…
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