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13th October 2024
10:45am BST
Ireland and Sunderland striker Aaron Connolly has thanked fans for their outpouring of love and support following an interview in which he opened up about his struggles with alcohol.
The 24-year-old, who signed for Sunderland on 24th September after several months without a club, opened up on his years of off-the-field turmoil during a conversation with his new club's media team.
The Oranmore man - who burst onto the Premier League scene as a teenager for Brighton and Hove Albion scoring twice in a 3-0 win over Tottenham Hotspur – opened up about the harrowing aftermath of what should have been a proud day.
"I remember it, 5th October 2019, it was a 12:30 kick-off" he said. "I’m never going to forget that day, it was one of the best days of my life but it was also one of the worst as well.
"That’s probably the start of when my career started to go downhill and really it should have been carrying on upwards.
"I just stopped doing the things that got me to that position where I felt so comfortable on the biggest stage," he continued. "I just stopped working hard and you can’t do it. People always say hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work harder. I never ever thought about whether that was true but that was in my case.
"I decided at the end of July that it was too much. I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t live the way I was living because it was killing people around me to be honest. My family, my friends. Mainly, it was killing me really. I had one of my best seasons at Hull last year but off the pitch, my life was a mess.
"I just feel like (speaking about) this will help people if I am being completely honest. I had everything that any young boy would dream of and I just couldn’t get hold of my addiction," Connolly added. "It is an addiction.
"It was the toughest thing I ever had to do, to go in there (treatment centre). This isn’t just about how football is."
Now, after two days of messages of support, the Ireland star has taken to his social media to thank fans.
"Just wanted to say thank you to everyone for all the love and support they’ve shown," he wrote. "If sharing my story has helped even just one person then I achieved exactly what I’ve set out to do."
Connolly has received huge amounts of praise for his honesty and bravery.
