Callum Wilson: Opening Up About His Haunted Past and the Battles You Didn’t See (E353)

I'm running towards the ball, but as I've stopped to try and turn, it honestly felt like someone had blew it off with a shotgun. I went down again in agony and just said, get me off this pitch. You have to try and fall in love with the process of returning from injury. You know, ultimately what defines us is how wow we rise after falling. When I say I cried myself to sleep, I was just praying to God, take me out of this environment, I want to become a footballer.

Football really was my saviour, I think. That is the voice of Callan Wilson, who we all know as one of the Premier League's top strikers, but the story and the pain behind his journey is something that he's never spoken about until now. Look, please be warned that from the very start of this episode we discuss themes of suicide and trauma, and in the description to this episode you'll find links to platforms and people who can help you if you or someone you know is struggling. It's conversations like this one, Damien, that I honestly believe move the dial for so many people when it comes to opening up about their mental health. Absolutely, but it's important to state it's a conversation about hope.

Callum reveals how from the depths that really moved us, he managed to find hope, resilience, and a renewed sense of purpose. He also told us how he's now learning to find answers in therapy and what he'd learned around the challenges that he faced on the field as he had to battle back from two devastating ACL injuries. And crucially, you'll also hear Callum reveal to us that the bigger his struggles became, the bigger the smile on his face became. And you know what we believe that is the lived experience for so many people. And actually putting on a brave face when you're hurting inside is something that causes devastation for so many.

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