Phil Jones reveals traumatic experience with online abuse.

Phil Jones has revealed how online abuse and trolls impacted his mental health during his time at Manchester United.

The former defender, 32, struggled for over 14 years with knee injuries after initially tearing his meniscus at Blackburn Rovers as a teenager. After several unsuccessful attempts to get back to his best, he officially retired from playing football in August 2024.

And Jones has revealed how he would actively try to avoid speaking to teammates or going out publicly due to the mental anguish he was going through.

He became almost a figure of ridicule among fans online due to his recurring injuries and he admits that trauma took a toll.

“Anybody who tells you that it [online abuse] doesn’t [trauatise] is lying. And as footballers, you have to put this mask on. You get paid a lot of money so you are not allowed to have feelings or emotions,

“The physical injuries made me mentally weak at times. Obviously, people will ask, ‘He is always injured?’ as though they think that I wake up one day and think, ‘Oh, yeah, I fancy being injured today.”

“But my coping mechanism was to be silent, put my guard up, my shield up around with my really close family. I wouldn’t even really communicate with my friends that well,” he said.

The former centre-back admitted the online abuse were so bad that he started heading in late for physio sessions to avoid well-meaning teammates checking in on him and even attempted to hide his identity in public to avoid people who would judge him for being injured.

“You’d go past people in the street and they’d say something and it would really aggravate you and get to you. You just hear people whispering, ‘Oh there he is, injury-prone,” he added.

Phil Jones has gone into coaching since hanging up his boots after returning to Old Trafford to coach United’s academy.

The post Phil Jones reveals traumatic experience with online abuse. first appeared on 3News.

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