I WILL NOT PLAY AGAIN:Sunderland AFC key player has decided to quit his career….

I WILL NOT PLAY AGAIN:Sunderland AFC key player has decided to quit his career….

WHEN the idea of signing Aaron Connolly was first put to Regis Le Bris, Sunderland’s head coach set about watching some footage of the striker in action.

And he says it took just 10 minutes to know Connolly had the class to be an asset for Sunderland.

 

Of course, ability is only one element of what it takes to succeed in the game and Le Bris and Sunderland had to sit down with Connolly and get the striker’s take on why a career that promised so much had nosedived and left the 24-year-old without a club, just five years after breaking onto the Premier League scene.

But after Connolly opened up to Le Bris in a tell-all discussion in the head coach’s Sunderland office – revealing the battles that he went public with during the international break – the Frenchman was confident the former Brighton man was in a position to put his “mistakes” behind him.

 

And Le Bris also quickly came to another conclusion: that Connolly was desperate to be fit and ready to feature for the Black Cats against his former club Hull City this afternoon.

“I think that it was a specific goal for him to be ready for that game and it fits with his pathway before,” said Le Bris ahead of Sunderland’s trip to the MKM Stadium today.

 

“We haven’t rushed the project, it was perfect, and I don’t know if we will use him but he is available.”

Connolly had the world at his feet after his blistering introduction to Premier League football with Brighton in 2019 but it was too much too young for the striker and the start of a downward plunge.

 

Failed loan moves to Middlesbrough and Venezia followed and an alcohol problem prevented Connolly from getting back on track. But after his Hull release – when his “life was a mess” – he called for help and after summer treatment the Sunderland opportunity presented itself.

 

He bravely spoke out about his problems during the international break in a revealing interview with the club.

Le Bris said: “Everyone has their own pathway and if we think about our learning environment then we need to assume that everybody can make mistakes. That is life.

 

“For Aaron, especially, he was very open to talk about his previous mistakes and the bad choices that he made before and the consequences it had on his career.

 

“He started very well but many things can happen and you break that dynamic very quickly, so it is very interesting to share these ideas instead of hiding and pretending that it doesn’t exist.

 

“The first thing is to recognise your mistakes and then the next is to avoid any repetition. It’s not a problem for us to talk about any problems a player has had in their career, whether it is a small detail on the pitch or a bigger one off it.”