Negative environments are creating huge problems with mental wellbeing in elite sport – it is time to change that

A young academy player at a top European club who needs to shift some excess weight snaps a picture of his dinner and sends it to his fitness coach at the club. Back comes the reply: “Good work but take some of the potatoes off and add some more broccoli. You’re smashing it. Have a great evening.”

At another top club there is an academy player who doesn’t think the meals at the club provide the right nutrition (he is right). He gets up early to make his own lunch, packs it up and takes it to training. The coaches routinely mock him, calling him the “fucking packed lunch boy”, and they encourage his fellow players to hide or take his lunchbox. He tops all of the club’s fitness tests.

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