Get Your Head in the Game : An Exploration of Football's Complex Relationship With Mental Health

Get Your Head in the Game is the first book to tackle the issue of mental health and its relationship with the most popular sport in the world, football.

Football is more than just a sport; the pitch reveals emotion in the extreme, from the glory of goals, the thrill of comradeship, the rollercoaster of club loyalty, through to the immense pressure of expectation, fear of injury, and crushing defeat. Fans, players, managers, coaches, and even those new to the sport can't help but be swept up by the drama at the heart of the beautiful game. But when players at the peak of their physical fitness commit suicide, or poor mental health derails careers, there can still be a stunned silence in the community, a lack of connection.

In Get Your Head in the Game, Dominic Stevenson, a writer, player, coach, and lifelong football obsessive, interviews a diverse cross-section of characters in the football world, from fans to managers, from players at the start of their careers to retired veterans, women's football stars, international celebrities, refugee footballers and mental health professionals. Football is more than just a sport. The pitch reveals emotion in the extreme: from the glory of goals, the rollercoaster of club loyalty, through to the immense pressure of expectation, fear of injury, and crushing defeat. Fans, players, managers, coaches and even those new to the sport can't help but be swept up by the drama of the beautiful game. But when players at the peak of their physical fitness commit suicide, or poor mental health derails careers, there can still be a stunned silence in the community, a lack of connection.

Dominic Stevenson, a writer, player, coach and lifelong football obsessive, interviews a diverse cross-section of characters in the football world to try to understand this lost connection between the sport and the mind.

This book contains contributions from internationally renowned players such as Sam Hutchinson, Chris Kirkland, Ella Masar, John Harkes and Iffy Onoura. From voices at top clubs around the globe including Manchester United, Paris Saint-Germain, Chelsea and DC United, to the stories of smaller clubs and unsung heroes behind the scenes, Dominic reveals personal battles both on and off the pitch, touching on anxiety, depression, discrimination, trauma, identity and recovery.

Dominic Stevenson is a writer, professional communicator and an academy football coach at League Two and Lowland League football teams in Scotland. He has trained alongside international football coaches, and as a youth player, he captained teams to play across Europe and in Asia. He provides communications support for the Confederation of Independent Football Associations (CONIFA), and he is the PR Manager for the Yorkshire International Football Association.