{"id":300757,"date":"2023-12-16T23:26:10","date_gmt":"2023-12-16T23:26:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/allmysportsnews.com\/?p=300757"},"modified":"2023-12-16T23:26:10","modified_gmt":"2023-12-16T23:26:10","slug":"how-man-united-prodigy-tom-thorpe-saw-his-career-slip-away","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/allmysportsnews.com\/soccer\/how-man-united-prodigy-tom-thorpe-saw-his-career-slip-away\/","title":{"rendered":"How Man United prodigy Tom Thorpe saw his career slip away&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1><span>EXCLUSIVE<\/span> Man United prodigy Tom Thorpe was patronised by Louis van Gaal, ravaged by horror injuries and plagued by mental health issues&#8230; now he is making his mark by passing on his experiences to the next generation<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Tom Thorpe captained Man United&#8217;s Under-21s as he came through the academy\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Injuries and mental health issues saw his career come to a shuddering halt\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Manchester United fans must be DREADING Anfield trip &#8211; It&#8217;s All Kicking Off\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Tom Thorpe is recalling what was, to every other onlooker, his finest moment for boyhood club Manchester United.<\/p>\n<p>Having been with them since the age of six, his senior debut &#8211; given to him by Louis van Gaal against West Ham in the Premier League &#8211; was meant to be a momentous day for the lifelong fan, marking his journey through the academy, right to the very top.<\/p>\n<p>Only he wasn&#8217;t made to feel that way.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;I played at Old Trafford, came on for [Angel] Di Maria, great experience,&#8217; he tells Mail Sport.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;It was soured by the manager at the time. It was a patronising slap on the cheek and &#8220;You&#8217;re welcome&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/12\/07\/14\/78653943-12833397-image-a-11_1701959292698.jpg\" height=\"657\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Tom Thorpe has recalled the patronising reaction given to him on his Manchester United debut<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/12\/14\/20\/78654959-12833397-The_former_United_prodigy_was_criticial_of_then_boss_Louis_van_G-a-9_1702586493238.jpg\" height=\"441\" width=\"306\"><\/p>\n<p>The former United prodigy was criticial of then boss Louis van Gaal&#8217;s reaction<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;That made me feel as though all the hard work that I&#8217;d done over 15 years was, I guess, not warranted.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;It was a case of I was handed it as a favour rather than it being something that I&#8217;d earned.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;I look back at it. I&#8217;m obviously proud of it, but there&#8217;s that slight tainted feeling towards it.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>It was the only occasion Thorpe would play for the first team, a series of freak injuries and mental health issues bringing his career to a shuddering halt in 2018.<\/p>\n<p>His story shines a light on the darker side of life in football, the battles beyond the pitch. As sport&#8217;s biggest names begin to open up on the struggles at the top, Thorpe wants to share his story, too.<\/p>\n<p>Mail Sports meets Thorpe at St Mary&#8217;s stadium in Southampton. A former Championship regular, he once would have expected to grace the ground as a player, turning up on a Saturday afternoon.<\/p>\n<p>Today though, a Wednesday morning, he&#8217;s up in front of a different crowd. A group of 260 delegates from professional teams and governing bodies across British sport have squeezed into the Mick Shannon suite to hear him talk on behalf of Sporting Chance &#8211; the clinic set up by Tony Adams, aimed at helping professional sportsmen and women with addiction and mental health issues.<\/p>\n<p>It is not where Thorpe would have seen himself a few years ago, given his trajectory at United.<\/p>\n<p>He was Under 21s captain, wearing the armband when a team that included Paul Pogba, Ravel Morrison, Jessie Lingard and Sam Johnstone lifted the FA Youth Cup in 2011. Big things were expected of him, too.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;I had some amazing memories and happy times, winning trophies, going through the England camps,&#8217; he says. &#8216;I look back with fond memories.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/12\/14\/20\/78654831-12833397-Thorpe_has_opened_up_about_his_battles_with_mental_health_issues-a-7_1702586493108.jpg\" height=\"427\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0Thorpe has opened up about his battles with mental health issues while in football<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/12\/14\/20\/78653939-12833397-The_centre_back_was_captain_of_a_youth_team_that_included_Paul_P-a-11_1702586493686.jpg\" height=\"453\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>The centre back was captain of a youth team that included Paul Pogba and Jessie Lingard<\/p>\n<p>Your browser does not support iframes.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;I think the funny thing is only as you get older, do you look back and realise the amount of pressure that I was applying to myself at the time.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>Coming through at the country&#8217;s biggest club, demands were naturally high. But it was the unattainable standards he set himself that began to cause the defender problems.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;I never felt at the time the pressure of captaincy, I was just my own biggest critic,&#8217; he says.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;It didn&#8217;t matter if I had 50 people saying &#8220;you were amazing today&#8221;. If I thought I&#8217;d done one thing wrong, that is what my focus would have been on.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;That became more apparent as I moved through, left United and went out elsewhere in the leagues.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>It was in his bid to get first team experience away from Old Trafford that his injury nightmare reared its ugly head.<\/p>\n<p>Having joined Birmingham City on loan, his senior debut in football lasted just 14 minutes.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;There was a corner coming in and me and the guy who was marking me both jumped for it,&#8217; he explains.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/12\/14\/20\/78654835-12833397-Thorpe_spoke_about_his_personal_experiences_at_a_Sporting_Chance-a-8_1702586493109.jpg\" height=\"429\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Thorpe spoke about his personal experiences at a Sporting Chance event in Southampton<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/12\/14\/20\/78653937-12833397-Thorpe_celebrates_United_s_FA_Youth_Cup_title_with_Pogba_and_Lin-a-10_1702586493239.jpg\" height=\"352\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Thorpe celebrates United&#8217;s FA Youth Cup title with Pogba and Lingard back in 2011<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;I landed normally and he landed on top of my calf, which caused all my ankle ligaments to snap. It caused my heel bone to crack and I broke my ankle as well.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;It was obviously traumatic for me to deal with, but then the added mental aspect of &#8220;why now?&#8221;, I think that that was a big hurdle.<\/p>\n<p>The hurdles kept coming. The ligaments in his other ankle snapped &#8211; another setback. After finding himself without a club, following stints at Rotherham and in India, a freak accident in the gym saw him needing two pins in his elbow after a box gave way from underneath him.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;It was a very difficult time of trying to get myself out of, what felt like a bottomless pit,&#8217; he says.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Human nature tells you if there&#8217;s light at the end of the tunnel, then you can keep going and you can strive for it. Whereas with depression, there&#8217;s just no light, you&#8217;re just in this abyss.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;I could see the effect that it was having on my mum and dad. That made me finally decide to take the step of calling Sporting Chance.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/12\/14\/20\/78654839-12833397-Thorpe_is_using_his_own_experiences_to_help_young_players_coming-a-6_1702586493106.jpg\" height=\"429\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Thorpe is using his own experiences to help young players coming through academies today<\/p>\n<p>It proved to be the key that turned the lock in Thorpe&#8217;s bid to escape his depression. They took his call and set him up with a therapist, one of 250 the charity gives sport stars access to across the UK.<\/p>\n<p>Getting a handle on his condition, Thorpe was able to rekindle his love for a game that had thrown so much at him.<\/p>\n<p>He was invited to a WhatsApp group for a regular nine-a-side kick-about in Manchester, involving the likes of Danny Simpson Papiss Cisse. A move back into non-league followed as he joined Macclesfield. He&#8217;s now at Stalybridge Celtic.<\/p>\n<p>He is also back at Manchester United, training at Carrington as part of the club&#8217;s own alumni initiative to help former graduates re-connect with the game.<\/p>\n<p>Owing much to his second lease of life in football to Sporting Chance, Thorpe is returning the favour, running workshops for youth players up and down the country.<\/p>\n<p>The charity supported nearly 1,400 athletes with clinical help last year &#8211; a number that appears ever-growing in such a pressurised environment.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/12\/14\/20\/78688973-12833397-Thorpe_during_his_spell_at_Rotherham-a-12_1702586494536.jpg\" height=\"723\" width=\"306\"><br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/12\/14\/20\/78688971-12833397-Thorpe_during_his_spell_at_Birmingham-a-13_1702586496821.jpg\" height=\"723\" width=\"306\"><\/p>\n<p>Thorpe had spells at both Birmingham City and Rotherham United in the Championship<\/p>\n<h3>IT&#8217;S ALL KICKING OFF!\u00a0<\/h3>\n<p><span><span>It&#8217;s All Kicking Off is an exciting new podcast from Mail Sport that promises a different take on Premier League football.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span>It is available on MailOnline, Mail+, YouTube, Apple Music and Spotify.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Your browser does not support iframes.<\/p>\n<p>That the number seeking help is rising, should be seen as a success, Thorpe argues.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;The age group of me growing up, if somebody came in and did a presentation, there&#8217;s not one person in the changing room who would say, &#8216;yeah this applies to me&#8217;, he says.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;You&#8217;d be fearful of what people think &#8211; of what a coach would think. It shouldn&#8217;t be seen as being weak.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Football in particular still has this big stigma behind it. I think it&#8217;s changing slowly. I think it&#8217;s changing slowly and with the help of charities like Sporting Chance it&#8217;s definitely improving.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/i\/pix\/2017\/08\/02\/636x90_facebook_ad_sport.png\" width=\"636\" height=\"90\"><br \/>\nSource: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sport\/football\/article-12833397\/Man-United-prodigy-Tom-Thorpe-patronised-Louis-van-Gaal-ravaged-horror-injuries-plagued-mental-health-issues-making-mark-passing-experiences-generation.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>EXCLUSIVE Man United prodigy Tom Thorpe was patronised by Louis van Gaal, ravaged by horror injuries and plagued by mental [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":300756,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8 - 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