Former Albion goalkeeper John Sullivan fears footballers young and old are living with depression.

He was contacted by players asking for help after he spoke about his own battle when quitting the game.

Sullivan was only 26 when he hung up his gloves two summers ago.

The Albion youth team product made 17 first team appearances and served eight clubs in total, including permanent spells with Millwall, Charlton and Portsmouth.

Talking openly and frankly about depression, which hit him hardest on loan to Cambridge United from Portsmouth in the final stages of his career, led to ridicule from some outsiders but empathy in dressing rooms.

Sullivan, who has reinvented himself as a real estate agent in Las Vegas, said: "I was trying to just relay what it is like to be a sportsman.

"When you are in sport you can't show any signs of weakness. If I was playing and my manager read that he wouldn't play me, he wouldn't trust me.

 

"I just wanted to let people know that football looks great from the outside, the flash cars, the watches, but everyone doesn't see the lonely side.

"Living on your own in a flat, you don't know anyone.

"You make sacrifices, it's a short career, I understand that, but I just felt like it was a good time to talk about my experiences and show people it is not how it is always perceived.

"I'm glad, because I had a few players who played at a lot higher level than me actually reach out to me, say 'I'm going through the same thing, can you help me?'

"I put them in touch with the people that helped me. It was worth doing just for that.

"I got a bit of criticism from a handful of people saying about people in the army in Afghanistan, all that sort of stuff.

"I can't talk about that, because I haven't been through that experience. I can only talk about what I went through.

"I had a great time in football, I loved it, but it's not always cut out to be what people think."

The Professional Footballers' Association helped Sullivan come to terms with his situation, which reached its nadir when promotion-chasing Cambridge lost at home for the first time all season to Grimsby. After the match Sullivan locked himself in the kit room for an hour-and-a-half.

He said: "My agent at the time, Jamie Hart, Paul Hart's son, put me in touch with someone at the PFA.

"I sat down with them. They put me in touch with a therapist. I went to them, just sat down and talked about my problems.

"I hadn't talked about it to my family, friends. No-one knew, I just bottled it all up.

"There were a couple of moments when it came out, at Portsmouth and when I was playing at Cambridge.

"My head just wasn't anywhere at Cambridge. It was like a last-ditch attempt for me and I ended up feeling kind of guilty.

"They were trying to get promoted and they knew I was a talent. I just wasn't performing because my head wasn't right. As a sportsman if mentally you are not there your performance is going to drop and mine definitely did, both in training and games."

Sullivan fears depression among footballers in England is widespread, a by-product of a pressurised environment with often nothing to turn to when it all comes to an end.

He said: "I think it is suffered at all ages, even the older ones coming to the end of their careers. 'How do I pay the mortgage now, I've got kids, family?'

"The one thing I have learnt about America is all these kids at college and university are educated. If they don't make it in sport they have something to fall back on.

"It's a bit of a farce that kids are getting taken out of school too young, being taught that football is the most important thing and then when they get dropped at 16 or 18 where do you go?

"I feel we can learn a lot from America. Okay, you are going to be a professional sportsman but you are also going to go to university, get some degrees.

"You can get injured at any time, there are so many things that can happen. I just feel that in England we are not prepared for any of that, it's just football, football, football.

"The fall-out percentage is crazy. So many drop out between the age of 15 and 18. It is hard to get yourself going again at that age when all you think you are going to be is a footballer."

Sullivan's age group at Albion highlights the high fall-out rate. Tommy Elphick (Bournemouth) and Joel Lynch (Huddersfield) are still playing. Many others, such as Tommy Fraser, Joe Gatting, Scott Chamberlain, Richard Martin, Ashley Jarvis and Dan Leech, have dropped out of the professional game.

Sullivan said: "In my early years, when I was a youngster and came through that team with Michel Kuipers, Ben Roberts, Nathan Jones, Gary Hart, Charlie Oatway - real characters - you were fearing them as a youth team player but it was a good fear. You wanted to push on.

"At the end of my career it was so different. Managers were so uncertain of their jobs. It was a knock-on effect. The dressing rooms changed as my career went on. It didn't feel so together and close, especially with social media.

"You couldn't go off and do anything, have a few beers. I don't honestly miss it that much. I don't miss the politics of football one bit."

Selling property in the gambling capital of the world on commission-only seems, on the face of it, a demanding antidote but Sompting-born Sullivan, just turned 28 now, is loving his new life.

His alternative career was sparked by the experience of buying his own house in Sutton when he was 21, playing for Millwall, and watching TV programmes about the property market in the States.

"It really is a chase every day," he said. "You have to cold call, door knock, get referrals. It's a really tough business.

"It's a bit different to football, where you are on a contract. It's similar in the sense that if you don't perform you don't get paid as much.

"I'm lucky. I did my dream as a kid to be a professional footballer for ten years and now I'm chasing new dreams in America. I look back on my career with many fond memories. I met some incredible people but I've kind of left that behind me now.

"I don't sit and dwell. Of course, I would have liked to have played more games. I made mistakes here and there, on and off the field, but I played for some great teams.

"My only regret is that I didn't play for Brighton for longer. I had unfinished business there. That year I broke into the team I played games when Micky (Adams) was in charge, then Russell (Slade) came in.

"I felt a bit disheartened that I got released at the end of that season. I thought as a home-grown keeper to come in at 20 and play games that I was worth another year or two but it wasn't to be. You just move on and get on with it."