REPUBLIC OF IRELAND attacker Aaron Connolly has revealed he is in recovery from alcohol addiction after recognising that his lifestyle was causing serious harm both to himself and to his loved ones.
Connolly, who joined English Championship side Sunderland on a one-year deal in September, spent a month in a treatment clinic over the summer and says he now โcouldnโt be any happierโ as he attempts to rebuild his life and reignite his football career.
The Galway native, 24, laid bare his years-long dependence on alcohol in an in-house video interview with Sunderland, which Connollyโs new employers published as part of World Mental Health Day.
Connolly, who has nine senior caps for Ireland, admitted that his relationship with alcohol reached the point he would look forward to going drinking while playing football matches.
But the former Brighton winger stressed that while his on-field career trajectory took a downward turn due to his addiction, his personal life โtook the biggest beatingโ as he broke the hearts of his parents and loved ones.
Connolly pinpointed his revelatory two-goal performance for Brighton against Tottenham in 2019 as a turning point for the worse, while also confirming that the English PFA contributed to the cost of his treatment over the summer.
โIt was obvious I had a problem with alcohol. It was killing the people around me and it was killing me.โ
โ Sunderland AFC (@SunderlandAFC) October 10, 2024
On #WorldMentalHealthDay, Aaron Connolly opens up about the impact of addiction and tells his story in his own words.
โI donโt know how to put this bluntlyโฆ it was obvious I had a problem with alcohol for a good few years,โ Connolly said.
โI had my parents โ who never drank before โ always telling me when I was younger and when Iโd go out, theyโd always advise me to stay away from alcohol. It was always their thing because of addiction to alcohol in my family.
โI didnโt listen, clearly, and it got me in a lot of trouble. It got me a lot of problems and it just became something that I relied on.
โIt felt like my buzz used to come from football, winning games and scoring goals, and it got to a point where the buzz was more from drinking alcohol than going out on a football pitch.
I used to look forward to the games finishing so I could have time to go and have a drink, go and socialise. โSocialise,โ I say, but it wasnโt. It was an excuse to go and get drunk.
โThat was where I got my buzz from, whereas before, it was always the buzz of football and the buzz of being around an environment like I am now and feeling the way I am now: excited to play football,โ Connolly added. โWhereas for three or four years, that just wasnโt there.โ
Connolly says he came to the realisation in late July that his lifestyle had become untenable.
He credited his manager at Hull City last season, Liam Rosenior, for efforts to help him, but said that his life had become โunmanageableโ before he was released by the Tigers in June.
Ultimately, Connolly sought professional help and checked into a treatment facility. He made the decision not to save his football career, he explained, but to โget his life back.โ
โI decided, I think it was the end of July, that it was too much. I couldnโt do it,โ Connolly said.
I couldnโt live the way I was living because it was killing people around me, to be honest with you: my family, my friends, and mainly it was killing me, really.
โI had one of my best seasons last year at Hull but off the pitch, my life was a mess. The manager at Hull, to be fair, always looked after me and always tried to help, but I just got to a point whereโฆ it wasnโt like life wasnโt worth living it โ it was just my life was so unmanageable and I couldnโt control what Iโd do or I couldnโt control my alcohol.
It just got to a point where I had to make a decision that I needed to go to a treatment clinic. I spent a month there in the summer and I just said to my agent, โI donโt want you contacting any clubs, Iโm not doing this for football, Iโm not doing this for anything else. Iโm doing this so I can get my life backโ.
โIf stuff in football comes with thatโ, Connolly added, โthen thatโs a bonus. But it wasnโt even the football in the end that was taking the biggest beating. It was my life, my relationships, my family, my friends. Everything was just failing and falling apart.
When your parents are calling you and youโre not answering calls because you know youโre breaking their heart, itโs time to realise that Iโve got a problem.
Connolly said that he had decided to open up about his alcohol addiction in the hope that it would help people in similar situations to come to the same realisation as he did back in July.
He stressed that alcohol dependency is not always conspicuous and can affect anyone, regardless of their personal circumstances.
โI had everything that any young boy would dream of and I couldnโt get hold of my addiction,โ Connolly said.
โThis isnโt just to help just footballers. I know thereโs people out there that could be in the Sunderland area, the Brighton area, the Hull area โ Iโm just saying them for examples of clubs Iโve played at.
โI was grateful that the PFA helped me out with the cost of the treatment centre. I know some people might not be in that position to be able to afford it, but I just wanted to speak about it [to show people] that itโs not just a park bench and a vodka bottle, thatโs not it. Anybody can get affected by it.
โThereโs no price tag or thereโs no amount of money in the world that can cure it. Itโs a disease, itโs an illness and I never thought of it like that until I decided that I needed to go to the clinic. It was the best and worst month of my life.โ
Connolly pointed back towards his explosive introduction to Premier League football as the moment from which his struggles began.
His first league start for Brighton came when he was 19, the Oranmore man scoring two goals in a 3-0 victory over Tottenham.
Connolly describes it as โone of the best days of my life but also one of the worstโ, admitting that it led to his becoming complacent at a critical developmental juncture in his career.
โBeing put straight into the biggest league in the world, scoring two goals: thatโs probably the start of when my career started to go downhill, when really it should have been carrying on upwards,โ said Connolly.
โI just stopped doing the things that got me to that position where I felt so comfortable on the biggest stage. I just stopped working, I stopped working hard and you canโt do it.
โPeople always say hard work beats talent when talent doesnโt work hard, and I never ever really thought about it. But itโs true โ and in my case it was.
โI remember it: 5 October 2019. It was a 12:30 kickoff. Iโm never going to forget that day. It was one of the best days of my life but also one of the worst as well. I just stopped working and doing the things that I should have kept doing.
โI started to believe the hype and I didnโt turn into a good person after that. I was tough to be around. Nobody could tell me anything โ thatโs what I believed. Itโs obviously not true but that was genuinely what I thought at the time. I didnโt know how to deal with (newfound fame), if Iโm being honest.
โMy parents tried. They werenโt living with me. I was living with my ex-girlfriend at the time and itโs hard because I didnโt ever feel like I had that authoritative figure to keep me grounded โ even though my parents did try. But I just let myself believe everything that people were saying online and it just, I donโt knowโฆ it just took over and I stopped.
I always say to my parents that I started to live the lifestyle of a footballer without the football side of it. That was the hardest bit to admit: that I wasnโt doing all of the things that got me into the position where I could go and get my house and all that sort of stuff, and I could treat my family.
โI stopped doing the stuff that got me paid for that, and that was working hard every day.
It hurts to look back and speak about it because I know that if Iโd done everything right, Iโd maybe still be in the Premier League. Maybe I wouldnโt, but at least Iโd know that I gave it everything I could to stay at that level.
Asked how a football fan might describe him after his career downturn since 2019, Connolly said: โI think a lot of people would say, โHeโs arrogant, a waste of potential.โ Iโd also like to think that theyโd say a goalscorer as well, but Iโm not too sure thereโs many thatโll have too many positive things to say.
โBut the people close to me know what Iโm like and thatโs the main thing. But I know the perception of me isnโt the best. Iโm not blind to that.โ
Connolly said he deemed that external impression of his character to be unfair, but he equally acknowledged his role in creating it.
โTo be honest, it did bother me before, peopleโs perception of me, people that I donโt know. But now, as you grow into the game and you understand football, itโs not really those opinions that matter. Itโs the people like the gaffer here (Rรฉgis Le Bris), for example, the football club and the people that Iโm seeing every day. Thatโs the opinions that matter.
โYou get pundits, people, fans, the lot; everyone talking about you but that just comes with football, doesnโt it?
โBut yeah, Iโve obviously contributed to a lot of things myself thatโs given me that perception, but thereโs also things that have been out of my control as well.
Itโs tough to look back. I look back with a lot of regret over some of the things, but then also I have to be easy on myself as well because some of it wasnโt in my control.
Connolly, who signed a one-year deal with Sunderland as a free agent just over a fortnight ago, says heโs now back in his element at the Stadium of Light, where heโll hope to chase Premier League promotion with Championship-leading Sunderland.
โI canโt describe how good itโs been after the last few months,โ said the 24-year-old. โItโs great to just be back playing football.
โIโve had a tough few months so to be around a good group of people, a good gaffer, good coaching staff and just good people, with the football at my feet, I couldnโt be any happier.โ
HSE addiction services can be contacted at 1800 459 459 or at helpline@hse.ie. Alternatively, Alcoholics Anonymous Ireland can be contacted at 01842 0700 or at gso@alcoholicsanonymous.ie.
Hopefully having confronted his issues, he can now go on and be the player that his early form promised. More importantly he is happy in himself.
Fair play to him. Pity many of his critics were nit aware of his deamons. Hopefully you can stay alcohol free for the rest of your life.