When Per Mertesacker called time on his Arsenal career at the end of last season, Gunners fans openly welcomed the idea of him taking on the role of manager at the Arsenal Academy. But it seemed like the German was dealing with a lot of issues mentally.
The former Arsenal captain has talked about the anxiety that he experienced from playing football.
"Being in a career and going from highlight to highlight and playing a lot of matches you go through it and think it's normal when you play in front of 60,000 and you almost want to vomit in front of every game," he said (via BBC Sport).
"It's not right playing these games to have that fear about what's going on with me. The fact that I actually felt better after saying 'I'm going to stop', I had less pain."
The Arsenal Academy manager spoke about the issues of mental health during the launch of a project, which will help children at a camp in Jordan who are suffering from trauma. It will all be done through the power of football, by the way.
The Gunners are pushing big for mental health, helping to build pitches and partnering with Save the Children to create a football scheme for children.
"It helps to get a connection even to young players because everyone has a story, everyone goes through something and to speak about your feelings is difficult," Mertesacker said.
"I think it opens up and it gives them kind of a platform to think, 'oh, he's been great. He has been a professional player for 15 years. But still. He suffered. He's suffered and battled fear and still made it' - so to talk about it definitely helps."
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