'All is good' – West Brom's Jake Livermore allays fears over mental health
Albion vice-captain Jake Livermore has allayed fears over his mental health but thanked fans for their support.
The 27-year-old has been given a few days off by Baggies boss Tony Pulis, who said the midfielder felt ‘mentally jaded’ after playing for England in both June and September on top of his club duties.
He sat out Saturday’s goalless draw with West Ham and will miss Wednesday night’s Carabao Cup tie with Manchester City before returning to training on Thursday.
Livermore lost his newborn son in 2014, and he turned to cocaine afterwards to deal with the grief.
News he had been allowed some extra days off sparked concerns over his mental health among Baggies fans.
But Livermore has clarified that his time off is primarily in order to rest his body, and confirmed that ‘all is good’ at home.
He posted on Twitter: “Just to clarify, the club (both management and medical) made the decision it was the right and only time to take a few days off to rest my body.
“I hadn’t had this time in summer due to international duties and then myself wanting to do a full pre-season with my then new team-mates.
“All is good in the Livermore household but thanks for those who showed concerns.”
Livermore has been a regular fixture for Albion since his arrival from Hull City in January for £10m.
His performances have earned him a recall to the national squad, and he played the full 90 minutes for Gareth Southgate’s side against Scotland in June and Malta in September.
After Grzegorz Krychowiak and Gareth Barry arrived in the summer, Pulis and the medical staff felt it was the best time to give the England international a rest.
“We had a chat with Jake at the beginning of the week," said Pulis. "Jake came to see me.
"He has felt a little bit jaded, mentally more than anything else and we check all of his running stats, and his data and he had dropped off a bit.
"So we are going to give him a couple of days off. We could have done with his energy today with the way the game went. We could have done with Jake.
"I think for the first time going away with England during the summer and then having these two call-ups, I think playing all the time has really, really taken it out of the boy.
"And he is such a good player for us that we don't want to risk him going into a deeper, deeper, deeper hole.
“He won't play on Wednesday. But hopefully he will be ready to face Arsenal on the Monday."
Livermore has been named vice-captain to Jonny Evans this season after former skipper Darren Fletcher left for Stoke.
