England skipper and former Tottenham lynchpin Harry Kane has declared it was “eye-opening” to learn of ex-teammate Dele Alli’s troubled past and is hopeful for the latter being able to get his career back on track.
Dele opened up in an emotional interview in July on his mental health struggles with the revelation that he been a victim of sexual abuse as a child, resulting in him having to spend six weeks in rehabilitation in his adult years to treat an addiction to sleeping pills as a result of childhood trauma.
Dele had been the recipient of back-to-back PFA Young Player of the Year awards while playing alongside Kane at Tottenham but his career began spiralling into ignominy from around 2019. Thankfully he is now on firmer footing and back at current club Everton after a lackluster loan spell in Turkey last season.
In his interview with Gary Neville, Dele was quick to single out Kane and Eric Dier as “real friends” who were “brutally honest” in trying to help him through his challenging times.
Kane and Alli were teammates for seven years at Spurs and were also England teammates but the former Tottenham dangerman said he had no inkling Dele about the extent of Dele’s difficulties.
“I think it was extremely brave of Dele to come out and give the interview the gave, we have known each other for a period of time but I didn’t know the extent of what he had been through in his life for sure,” Kane said in Wroclaw, Poland, where he is preparing for England’s European Championship qualifier against Ukraine on Saturday. “It was eye-opening for me to hear that.
“I text him after and said how much I think what he did will help a lot of other people share their feelings as well.
“I caught up with Dele in the summer, before the interview, and he seems to be on a good track, been working hard to get fit and so I can’t wait to hopefully see him back out and playing football again.
“I think he is in a better place now and he has a lot of time left in his career and I really hope he can get back on track and play week in and week out.”