Newcastle star Wilson opens up about his childhood: “I cried myself to sleep and thought about taking my own life.”

The striker has spoken about his past during Mental Health Awareness Week.

Newcastle star striker Callum Wilson has opened up on the ‘High Performance’ podcast about several tough mental experiences during his childhood. The footballer wanted to talk about his past during Mental Health Awareness Week in England . Raised in Coventry, he was one of six children born to a single mother and a father who was different from his siblings.

Wilson spent time in foster care after witnessing domestic violence at home. He also frequently went to food banks: “I would cry myself to sleep at night. I got to be 12 or 13 and had a suicidal moment . I was just praying to God, ‘Get me out of this environment, I want to be a footballer.'”

The footballer reached the point of “contemplating ways to end” his own life and having “muscled up the courage” to do so . However, football became a refuge for him: “ It was my salvation, my escape . I’ve probably had a lot of aggression since then, but football was a field where I could be aggressive in my position and have no problems. So it was like a liberation, really.”

The need for therapy

Despite overcoming his past and enjoying great success in his professional career, Wilson admitted that he had started to become more aggressive in recent years and had begun gambling, so he sought help : “I talked to my wife about it, but I didn’t want to blur the boundaries of our relationship. She’s not my therapist, she’s my wife and the mother of my children, so I didn’t want to burden her with problems. You can talk to a therapist and feel a sense of relief afterward. It’s an investment in yourself and it’s worth it. I’m probably learning a lot about myself now—little traits I have that were obviously triggered by things in my childhood. I’m very happy.”