Ireland’s Aaron Connolly talks about alcoholism and rehabilitation

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Sunderland and Ireland striker Aaron Connolly has revealed he has battled alcoholism for several years, saying he spent a month in rehab this summer after realizing the addiction was killing him.

The 24-year-old, who opened up about his alcoholism in an interview with Sunderland’s second-tier website to mark World Mental Health Day, pointed to his brilliant start to the Premier League as a teenager as beginning of its downward spiral.

“I had everything a kid could dream of, but I couldn’t control my addiction,” Connolly said.

He was 19 and playing for Brighton & Hove Albion when he scored his first two Premier League goals in a game against Tottenham Hotspur, his first start.

“My phone was blowing up (after the Spurs game),” Connolly said. “It was one of the best days of my life, but also one of the worst because the next five years came from that.

“I stopped working. I started to believe the hype and I didn’t become a good person after that. It was hard for me to be, no one could tell me anything. I didn’t know how to deal with it, be honest.

“I always tell my parents that I started living the life of a footballer without the football part and that was the hardest thing to admit at the time: that I wasn’t doing all the things that had brought me into it. The position hurts to look at and talk about.

“I had problems off the pitch and it really stood out. I lost track of myself, I lost track of why I was playing football, chasing things I’d never chased before that Tottenham goal “.

Connolly scored eight goals for Hull City last season but said his life was falling apart off the pitch. Although his joy once came from playing soccer, he began to look forward to getting drunk afterward.

“I decided at the end of July that it was too much, I couldn’t do it, live the way I was doing it,” he said. “I was killing the people around me, family and friends. Mostly I was killing myself.”

He says rehab is the “best and worst” month of his life.

“My life was so out of control. I couldn’t control my alcohol. It got to a point where I had to make the decision that I had to go to a treatment clinic,” she said.

“I told my agent not to contact any club. I wasn’t doing this for football. I was doing it to get my life back.”

Connolly signed for Sunderland in September after his contract with Hull expired. He has yet to feature in a game although he was on the bench for the 2-2 draw at home to Leeds United in the Championship on 4 October.