THE first thing I would like to say about Leigh Griffiths is that this time away from the game is not about football.
It is not about Leigh Griffiths the Celtic player. It is not about scoring goals or pulling on a pair of boots.
This is about a young man and the rest of his life.
This is a man with five kids. He is only 28.
There is a whole lot of living ahead of him. And if he can get the professional help that he needs just now then that life will be a whole lot more fulfilled. He will be at peace within himself, he will feel cleansed and light if he gets his head down and really gets to work on the issues that have brought him to the point he finds himself at now.
If he can get to the point where he can come out of the other side of this in a far happier place then everything else will take care of itself. And I have every confidence that he will come out of it.
The goals will come back because he is a talent. The football will fall into place if his head is cleansed and refreshed from whatever issues it is that are weighing on him at the minute.
I speak to Brendan Rodgers all the time and I’d like to think we have a good friendship.
We discuss things that will remain private but he knows that he can turn to me and I will help him and I can help Leigh. Brendan and I first spoke when he got the Swansea job and I was living down there. I was one of the first people he called and we have enjoyed a very good relationship ever since then – and he knows that what we discuss stays between us.
But he knows Leigh’s qualities and I don’t think the lad could have a better manager to guide him through this.
Brendan is educated enough in the field to be considerate and supportive and he wants the best for him. He knows that there is a life when you stop playing football.
I suspect that he will also think that if Leigh can maybe go and get the therapy that he needs that he could come back as a really top class footballer too. If he can score the goals that he has while really struggling then what could he do if he was mentally in a really good place?
The most important thing is that Leigh finds peace within himself.
I know Leigh well. I like him a whole lot. And I know that he lives and breathes football. He will probably feel a little bit scared and nervous this morning as he wakes up for the first time in his adult life without the routine of going to training, getting ready for a game, being around a dressing room.
But this isn’t about getting over a hamstring strain or your season ended because of a broken leg.
This is about being able to cope with day to day life.
The mind is the most powerful muscle that you have. If Leigh can get into some kind of therapy it would be the best thing that he could do. But you have to give it everything – and I mean everything – then he can come out it feeling a way that he probably hasn’t for years.
You feel cleansed. Refreshed.
But you cannot be paying it lip service. It can’t be done for a week or ten days. You have to properly engage with it. You have to give yourself over and submerge yourself in the work of therapists who are trained specifically to help you talk through issues and deal with them.
Ultimately you have got to want to get better. You have to want something else. And you have to be prepared to do whatever it takes to get there.
Right now he has taken the first step in acknowledging that he is struggling and that is the most important thing that he can do.
And you have to applaud the club and the manager for the manner in which they have backed him. Celtic are doing the perfect thing. He doesn’t need to be criticised or slammed by anyone. who thinks that because he is a footballer or has a bit of money that they can mouth off about it He doesn’t need people poking around and trying to examine every corner of his life just now.
He doesn’t need to be held up to that kind of scrutiny.
The boy has held his hands up and asked for help. Let him get on with it now in peace and with the people around him that can help get him into a better place.
I know how good the Celtic family – and indeed the wider football community – were with me when I was physically very ill and then again when I was ill through gambling.
They got behind me and I suspect that will be the same now for Leigh. People will be willing him to get better.
I’d love nothing more than to see the wee man back and firing on all cylinders again and I am sure most of us would all say the same.
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