My clinic advisor was mesm-eric

It’s time for Rashford to stand alone I’m sick of seeing footballers getting caned for having the audacity to go out on to parks to do some running or ping a few passes to each other. We all want them to be back entertaining us in just over a month’s time

FOR the PFA to send players questionnaires on mental health during the coronavirus crisis is a good thing – but it shouldn’t be an initiative that fades when the pandemic does.

I wish such questionnaires could be issued regularly throughout a season, and also during summer holidays when players have down-time

The problem with questionnaires, however, is that players at different levels will be affected by different factors.

When I was at

Southend, my main worries were along the lines of: ‘Am I going to have a good career?

Am I getting the right advice from agents? Am I in a good working environment?’

And in the current climate, plenty of players in the lower leagues will be worried about contracts and finances.

At Liverpool, I was dealing with being a British record transfer and could have done with someone to talk to who could say: ‘I’ve walked in those shoes.’

The only time I ever had that, ironically, came outside of football.

After my spell in The Priory, I was back at Aston Villa but I was all over the place, and I had a call from someone at the clinic who said: “We have one of our therapists who feels like he may be able to help you.”

I was interested because, when you’re playing for your home-town club and you’re supposed to be the hero, or when you’re a British record transfer, there aren’t many who can empathise with you, who have the understanding and experience of what you are going through.

It’s not a normal situation to be in.

So I went to Roehampton and, when I got there, the mystery therapist looked up from beneath his hoodie – it was none other than Eric Clapton.

I thought: ‘Hang on, is

Jeremy Beadle about to walk in?’

But Eric (above) is a fullytrained therapist and I’m not betraying a confidence in telling you that he said: ‘I’ve been where you are, I’ve done the lot.’

We talked for 90 minutes and everything he said resonated with me.

I came out knowing that all the advice he gave me, much of which I still follow today, was valid because he’d been through an even more extreme position than mine.

Players need support from people who know what they are going through and I wish the PFA would recognise that.

■MARCUS RASHFORD’S admission that he’d rather be a winger than a central striker made me wonder if he has been a bit spooked by the fact Anthony Martial, Daniel James and, if he joins Manchester United, Jadon Sancho can all operate on the left or right.

■It seems like he wants to put himself in the same generic group who are part of what I call the Ronald-ification of strikers rather than identify himself as the main man at centre-forward.

■Youngsters these days don’t seem to want to take that responsibility. I’m not knocking Rashford (above), not at all, but I just wondered if this was him saying: ‘I don’t believe I can be a Ruud van Nistelrooy, an Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, a Harry Kane, so I’m just going to say to everybody that I’m a Cristiano Ronaldo-type figure – I’ll score you goals but I’ll score them from different positions.’

■As a generic forward, Rashford is one injury away from being yesterday’s man. As a central striker, he can stand out on his own.