‘Players deserve privacy over mental health’

LONDON: Jurgen Klopp strongly believes players should be allowed to deal with health issues in private, saying of the glare of publicity focused on Everton’s Aaron Lennon: “I really hate it.”

Lennon has been in the spotlight after the former England winger was detained under the Mental Health Act on Sunday.

His club say Lennon is suffering from a stress-related illness, but Klopp does not believe it is fair to an individual’s recovery to have their medical problems openly debated.

“Whatever I could say about it doesn’t help, it is only another headline,” the Liverpool manager said on Friday.

“What I really think is (that we should) keep all these kind of issues as private as possible. Give the people the privacy they need — stop talking about it, stop asking about it.

“If it is not a football player, the only advantage is that no one asks about it, so it is easy to come back when you feel better.”