Ibrahima Konaté opens up on personal tragedies and mental health struggles

Ibrahima Konaté has spoken about the struggles he faced in a year of personal tragedy in which the death of his former Liverpool teammate Diogo Jota was followed by that of his father.

The France international’s form was affected but it was not until January, when his dad, Hamady, died after a long illness, that it became apparent the personal turmoil the 27-year-old had been dealing with.

“There are low points, there’s depression,” said the defender, who appears poised to join Real Madrid after not renewing his Liverpool contract. “You can suffer from depression in football too; there’s no need to be ashamed to say so.

“It’s true that I’ve often heard players say they were suffering from depression and that fans or people on the outside didn’t understand because they were earning a lot of money. But no, that’s rubbish and you shouldn’t say that.

“Depression is personal; it’s deep inside you. When you’re depressed, it starts in the heart, goes up to the brain and takes over your whole body. For me, that’s what’s hard, and we need to talk about it.”

On the crash which killed his neighbour Jota and Jota’s brother André Silva on the eve of pre-season training Konaté said: “It devastated me. I didn’t have any interest in anything else at that point.

“You go back to football because you have no choice. We’re employees at a club that pays us every month, so we have duties. We had no choice but to go back on the field and play for him and his family – as well as ourselves. There’s no way of getting over it, but you learn to live with it.”

Konaté was also carrying the burden of knowing his father was seriously ill. “I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know whether I should go home and stop playing, because the team needed me too.

“I didn’t know who to talk to about it, so I kept it all to myself. And this is the advice I’d give to everyone: when you’re feeling down or something’s going on, you need to talk to those around you.

“It can help you and do you good. I didn’t talk about it and kept it to myself. The doctors then told us he didn’t have long to live, but we didn’t know it would happen so quickly.”

While on compassionate leave Konaté called Liverpool’s then head coach, Arne Slot, to say he was returning to help the team in a defensive injury crisis, and he scored on an emotional comeback against Newcastle at Anfield. But the centre-back knew things were not right.

“There was never a moment when I felt like I was on the mend,” he said. “All of these tragic events happened so quickly and as soon as I felt like I was getting my head above water, something else happened.

“I had the support of all these fans, who are exceptional at Liverpool, my teammates and especially my family but I also had to learn how to get back on my feet on my own because the team needed me more than ever and I know that my father would have wanted me to get back.”