British media ‘Daily Mail’ reported on the 7th (Korea Standard Time) that “Ali has vowed to overcome mental health, addiction, and injury aftereffects and ‘come back stronger than ever.”
Ali posted a photo on his social network service (SNS) account, saying, “I have had a setback in recovering from my injury,” and “I will come back stronger than ever.”
Having played for Tottenham since 2015, Ali has been in charge of one of the pillars of the offense called the “DESK line” (Delhi Ali, Christian Eriksen, Son Heung-min and Harry Kane). He played 269 games for Tottenham and showed great performance with 67 goals and 61 assists.
However, since then, Ali’s performance has declined due to injuries and other reasons, and Ali’s position has begun to narrow down in competition within the team. In the 2020-21 season, he played in 15 league games and failed to score a goal.
Eventually, midway through the 2021-22 season, Ali left Tottenham for Everton. There was no transfer fee at the time. Instead, he inserted a condition that he would pay a £10 million transfer fee if he played 20 games.
However, Ali had no presence even after the transfer. I ended up on the bench. Then he went to Turkiye on loan. He returned to Everton after failing to show his presence in Türkiye.
He even made a shocking confession. Gary Neville has reported his illness through “The Overlap.” “When I came back from Turkiye, I felt I needed psychiatric treatment. I decided to go to a rehabilitation facility. It is a place that deals with addiction and trauma, he said. “I also considered retiring at the age of 24. I was addicted to sleeping pills. It was heartbreaking,” he said.
“I was sexually harassed when I was 6 years old. I started smoking at the age of seven, and I started selling drugs at the age eight. At the age of 11, people in the neighborhood hung me under the bridge. She was adopted when she was 12. It was a family that helped me a lot,” he said. He failed to solve these mental problems and crashed after his time at Tottenham.
He was treated and prepared for the season more consistently than ever. He was given the number 20 that he wore when he was at Tottenham. However, he was not in good shape to play on the ground right away. It was because of a groin injury.
But Ali has not given up and is committed to rehabilitation. He is showing his willingness to return through his SNS posts.