Portsmouth’s Jack Whatmough: I was mentally in a bad place, drinking and gambling consumed my life. Sporting Chance rescued me

A cartilage tear sustained against Doncaster Rovers in February 2019 signalled a third operation on the talented central defender’s left knee by the age of 23.

To alleviate the agony of being deprived of competing in the sport he loves, the Pompey defender would drink up to eight cans of Carling a day and bet on horse racing apps.

In a staggeringly candid interview in forthcoming book Pompey: The Island City With A Football Club For A Heart, Whatmough lifts the lid on his injury torment during that bleak period.

The book explores the Blues’ 2019-20 campaign, while delving into the soul of a club resurgent since saved from liquidation by a passionate community.

Hearteningly, since that September 2019 confession, Whatmough has returned as a Pompey first-team regular, making 16 appearances so far this season.

Yet his honest account provides a fascinating insight into the destructive mindset of any injured footballer.

‘Imagine somebody’s favourite hobby is drawing. How would they feel if you told them to stand outside the room and instead watch others draw?’ Whatmough told Pompey: The Island City With A Football Club For A Heart.

‘Well, that’s how it felt for me with football; mentally it takes everything out of you.

‘It’s difficult watching it on TV, having to look at the lads in day-to-day training, to sit up in the stands on a match day seeing the game. It’s unbelievably tough.

‘I’ve had dark times – which is something I’m no longer afraid to admit – as it’s mentally tough going through three long-term injuries before the age of 23.

‘For a lot of footballers, stepping across that white line is their escape from something. You may be having the worst time at home, but when you enter that pitch everything is forgotten.

‘There is no escape when you are injured. It’s mentally the most draining thing you will ever suffer as a footballer.

‘I’ve had incredibly tough times during this lay-off in particular, sitting in a dark room not wanting to talk to anyone. You never get used to injuries.

‘I was in a bad place, but men can’t be upset, it’s an ego thing. We can’t possibly talk about it, just put it to one side and carry on as if nothing is wrong.

‘I changed that, I had to, otherwise I would still be low, struggling mentally. I owe so much to the PFA and the Sporting Chance Clinic.’

In July 2019, Whatmough confided in fiancée Demi and his parents about the demons plaguing his rehabilitation.

Demi, a sales executive at Pompey for three years, spoke to Fratton Park colleague Ashleigh Emberson about her concerns, who in turn located a number for the Liphook-based Sporting Chance Clinic.

Then the footballer made the crucial phone call.

‘The first week or two following my injury I was fine. I thought: “I’ll get over this, I’ll be okay”,’ he added.

‘We have a three-storey house in Port Solent and our bedroom is on the top floor, but being on crutches for the first three months, I was unable to climb stairs. A bed was instead moved into the gaming room on the bottom floor, so I slept there.

‘Each morning I would come to the training ground for rehabilitation for an hour, then return to that room. I spent 23 hours a day in there: sleeping, eating, and I couldn’t even have a shower for eight weeks.

‘It was mentally draining – these are the things people don’t see.

‘There was a two or three-month period when I was on the floor. I had no motivation to come into the club and carry out the work. I had no motivation for anything; I didn’t want to leave the house. My girlfriend would ask if I wanted to go out for a nice meal. I didn’t. I had no interest.

‘I had to replace my buzz of football with something, which became gambling on horses. It wasn’t for thousands of pounds, but it was completely out of character. Previously I wouldn’t set foot in a casino. I craved a bit of happiness from sport, so it was horses.

‘It started as £10 on phone betting apps, but escalated; next there were visits to casinos and betting shops. Then I began drinking.

‘I’m not a drinker. The occasional beer is nice, and if others are having a drink then I will, socially, but never at home when on my own. That changed.

‘If I’d had a bad day at the training ground during my recovery, I’d pick up some cans of Carling on the way home, drinking them in the afternoon or with dinner in the evening. I wouldn’t think anything of it.

‘It was my way of forgetting about things. Depending on my mood, I would drink between four and eight cans a day; it did me no favours and I put on weight. I was scared of opening up and admitting I needed help.

‘People don’t see what you have to go through. After the injury initially occurred, I was probably sleeping two hours a day. There was pain in my knee and it was uncomfortable keeping my leg constantly straight.

‘My fiancée had to do everything. It felt as though I was piling all this pressure on her, and I couldn’t even walk my dogs Lily and Teddy for 12 weeks. I saw what Demi was going through and it eats away at you a little.’

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Whatmough was 17 years, three months and eight days old when handed his first-team debut against Southend United in a League Two encounter in November 2013.

Although his progress was hampered by serious injury, he forced his way into Jackett’s side ahead of Christian Burgess towards the end of the 2017-18 season.

The former Neville Lovett Community School pupil subsequently started 35 of 41 Pompey League One fixtures before that fateful Fratton Park afternoon against Doncaster in February 2019.

Owner Michael Eisner sanctioned pioneering surgery at the Princess Grace Hospital in Marylebone, London, utilising a procedure which involved positioning an artificial membrane over the top of his problematic knee area to serve as a blocker once the repair had taken place.

Injected with Whatmough’s blood, the membrane now serves as a cartilage.

He said: ‘I had reached 30 matches by February, the most I’d ever played in a season, holding conversations with the gaffer throughout.

‘He kept asking: “Do you need a rest, do you need a game off?”. Yet I had that mentality of playing regularly, in good form, confident and convinced I didn’t require a break, I was fine. ‘Looking back, I should have taken a game or two off, but didn’t want to.

‘Then, against Doncaster, I went to make a tackle and caught my studs in the ground. I felt it straight away, a bit of a pop, so booted the ball into the North Stand and sat down calling for the physio.

‘A scan showed it was double the size of the previous tear. The one I previously fought back from was 1.5cm – this was 3cm and wiping out the original one in the process.

‘I was playing the best football of my career, establishing a really good partnership with Matt Clarke and Pompey were chasing promotion. Then it all came crashing down.

‘One of the best decisions I’ve ever made was to pluck up the courage to seek help through the Sporting Chance Clinic during those dark times.

‘The gaffer and the boys were away on a week-long training camp in Dublin, so I called him to explain what was happening. He told me he understood; he had been injured long-term himself and provided his full support, which was so important to me.

‘It was never on my mind to carry out an eight-week residential, I wasn’t at that stage – I just wanted to know whether I was drinking and gambling for a buzz. In truth, I knew I wasn’t enjoying it; it wasn’t enjoyable one bit.

‘At the Sporting Chance Clinic I spoke to Barry, who told me that everything stemmed from struggling mentally with being injured. “It’s not you as a person,” he reassured me.

‘I was asked about sleeping patterns and admitted I wasn’t dropping off until around 2am as I couldn’t switch off. Apparently drinking can be connected with breathing patterns.

‘It felt as if I’d had the weight of the world lifted off my shoulders after the first session. I immediately stopped drinking and gambling. I’ve been five times now and we are getting to the stage where talk isn’t about negative things, it is focused on planning for the future, which is enjoyable.

‘I genuinely thought that if I walked into that place they would batter me – don’t gamble, don’t drink, don’t do this. It wasn’t like that at all.

‘It is explained that you drink because you aren’t happy and are trying to forget. You gamble to receive a buzz, then you lose and aren’t buzzing – it’s a repeated cycle. “Yes,” I thought. “That’s actually it”.

‘I wasn’t an alcoholic, far from it actually. I’ve had a drink since, but not anything silly, just one or two, and I’ve barred myself from betting apps and feel in a much better place. The truth was, I was mentally suffering.

‘Now I didn’t know this bloke from Adam, yet there I was talking to him and he was coming back with things I would never have thought of.

‘They were points of view my missus would never say, that my mum would never say. It was fantastic getting a conversation with someone away from football and away from your actual life.

‘During injury rehabilitation, there are times where you have the best day ever and walk away feeling a million dollars. The next day is the worst you’ve ever had; you simply never know what’s coming around the corner.

‘For instance, the other day I was running inside in the gym and felt a pinch in the knee and thought: “What’s that?”. I had been running for a month, then one day I didn’t feel great, so I had a week off.

‘There’s no point getting too high or too low. I can now look at it that way, whereas before I would take the lows low and the highs high – and you can’t.’

Pompey: The Island City With A Football Club For A Heart is available to pre-order from Amazon and will be in Waterstones and the Pompey Shop from December 14.

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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