Thing from Leigh’s mind

I know Leigh well. I like him a whole lot. And I know that he lives and breathes football. He will probably feel a little bit scared and nervous this morning as he wakes up for the first time in his adult life without the routine of going to training, getting ready for a game, being around a dressing room.

But this isn’t about getting over a hamstring strain or your season ended because of a broken leg.

This is about being able to cope with day-to-day life.

The mind is the most powerful muscle that you have. If Leigh can get into some kind of therapy it would be the best thing that he could do. But you have to give it everything – and I mean everything – then he can come out of it feeling a way that he probably hasn’t for years.

You feel cleansed. Refreshed. But you cannot be paying it lip service. It can’t be done for a week or 10 days. You have to properly engage with it. You have to give yourself over and submerge yourself in the work of therapists who are trained specifically to help you talk through issues and deal with them. Ultimately, you have got to want to get better. You have to want something else. And you have to be prepared to do whatever it takes to get there.

He has taken the first step in acknowledging that he is struggling and that is the most important thing that he can do.

And you have to applaud the club and the manager for the manner in which they have backed him. Celtic are doing the perfect thing. He doesn’t need to be criticised or slammed by anyone who thinks that because he is a footballer or has a bit of money that they can mouth off about it. He doesn’t need people poking around and trying to examine every corner of his life just now. He doesn’t need to be held up to that kind of scrutiny.

The boy has held his hands up and asked for help. Let him get on with it now in peace and with the people around him that can help get him into a better place.

I know how good the Celtic family – and indeed the wider football community – were with me when I was physically very ill and then again when I was ill through gambling. They got behind me and I suspect that will be the same now for Leigh.

I’d love nothing more than to see the wee man back and firing on all cylinders again and I am sure most of us would all say the same.