Connolly, who joined Sunderland as a free agent last month, said he wanted to speak out to offer support to anyone else who might be suffering as he embarks on a new chapter in his career and life.

Connolly revealed that he had spent a month in a treatment clinic and opened up on the rise and fall of his career following his spectacular Premier League introduction against Tottenham Hotspur five years ago. The Ireland international said in an interview with Sunderland’s club media channels that he had lost his love of the game as he battled the illness and that seeking help had been the toughest thing he had ever had to do.

“You go from the U23s and getting plaudits there and you get shot into the Premier League,” Connolly said.

“My phone was blowing up, social media… it was one of the best days of my life [scoring a brace against Spurs] but also one of the worst because the following five years came from that. I stopped working, stopped doing the things that I should have kept doing. I started to believe the hype and I didn’t turn into a good person after that, I was tough be around, no one could tell me anything. I didn’t know how to deal with it, to be honest. I didn’t feel like I had that authoritative figure to keep me grounded. I always say to my parents that I started to live the life of a footballer without the football side of it and that was the hardest bit to admit at the time – that I wasn’t doing all the things that had got myself in that position. It hurts to look back at it and speak it.