Dele Alli tells how he ended up in the rehab

Everton midfielder Dele Alli said that he had been in a psychological care centre for a long time due to constant stress.

Dele Alli, Getty Images

- Now is the time to tell you about what has been happening to me recently. It's very difficult to talk about it because it happened quite recently and I'm scared to talk about it, but I think now is the time.

When I returned from Turkey and found out that I needed surgery, I was psychologically in a hole. I decided that I needed to go to a rehab for psychologically traumatised people. The time had come. You can't tell a person that they need to go to a place like this - you have to realise that you need it, make an independent decision that nothing else will help.

I was walking in a circle of bad things - I was relying on things that were harming me. I woke up every morning and won the battle: I went to training, smiled, showed everyone that I was happy. But inside, I was really losing the battle. When I got injured and was told I needed surgery, I felt myself getting sucked into this terrible cycle again. I decided it was time. I went to the clinic for six weeks. "Everton did an incredible thing: the club supported me 100%. I will always be grateful to them, no matter what happens in the future. They were open, honest and sincere - at a time when I was making the biggest decision of my life, it was incredibly important.

I'm glad I was able to do it. People perceive rehab as something scary, but I could never have imagined how much it would give me. I was in a terrible situation.

A lot happened to me in my childhood, and I could never realise and admit to myself that I was doing stupid things for which I now blame myself. But if you rewind back... Not everything was under my control. Understanding this, learning lessons from it, helped me a lot with other things. Letting go of some things, destructive feelings that I was holding on to and that were slowing me down and setting me back," Dele Alli said.

It will be recalled that Dele Alli spent last season on loan at Turkish side Besiktas.