ISAIAH JONES has lifted the lid on the mental health issues that led to his absence from the Middlesbrough side for most of the second half of last season.

Jones was pretty much an ever-present under Chris Wilder in the early stages of last term, and was also a regular starter in the first month of Michael Carrick’s tenure at the Riverside.

However, after starting in the victory over Wigan Athletic on Boxing Day, the 24-year-old did not return to the starting line-up until Boro travelled to Kenilworth Road to take on Luton in their penultimate away game of the campaign.

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The winger’s form had begun to dip prior to his disappearance from the squad, and there were suggestions that he had fallen out with Carrick and was potentially unlikely to pull on a Boro shirt again.

Carrick always denied that, and lived up to his word when he recalled Jones in the final few weeks of the season, and the Londoner has now explained why he barely featured for much of the spring.

Speaking in an interview on The Beautiful Game podcast, Jones revealed that he struggled to cope with the loss of seven family members within a year at the same time that his partner was pregnant.

“Me and the gaffer didn’t have a falling out,” said Jones. “People think I don’t like Carrick and Carrick doesn’t like me, but that was never the case. I just had a lot of things off the pitch that were going on.

“My missus was pregnant, and I had seven family members die in one season, in this year alone. Then, I was going through mental health problems. The club knew, but not the players. I think the only player that knew I was going through mad things was Marc Bola.

“I was going through a lot of mental health issues, taking tablets. I don’t what it was, but you can’t really bring that energy when your missus is pregnant because you don’t want to show you’re vulnerable at a stage where she needs you the most.

“It got the point where I was playing, and I remember a day in the lead-up to a game where my mum called me on the coach to tell me someone had passed away. I broke down, but said I would try to play.

“Then when I went on the pitch, it was like the game was passing me by. I was losing my great-uncles, who had supported me from day one, and also my grandad’s dad, who passed. It was crazy. It messed me up mentally. So, the times where I wasn’t playing was because of stuff like that.”

Initially, Jones tried to hide his mental-health struggles, but eventually it became apparent that the situation was snowballing.

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He discussed his problems with Carrick and members of Boro’s medical staff, and has nothing but praise for the way in which the situation was handled.

“I remember in training one time, Chuba said, ‘Izzy, what’s wrong?’ I said, ‘Nothing’s wrong’ – I didn’t want to show my team-mates I was going through deep things,” he said. “I would say, ‘I’m good’, but then Chuba would say, ‘Liven up man – you’re not you’.

“It got to the point where I had to tell the gaffer because right now (at that point), I don’t want to play football anymore. I just wanted to stop. I went to him and said, ‘Can we have a serious conversation’, and I broke down.

“I said, ‘What you want me to give you this season, I can’t do right now’. He said, ‘Why, what’s up?’ I said, ‘I’m going through some deep mental health issues’. I remember the club doctor saying, ‘How deep are you, have you felt like committing suicide?’ I said, ‘Not that deep’, but I just don’t want to be anywhere near this building.

“I was in a dark place. The gaffer offered me to take a couple of weeks off, but I said, ‘If I do that, I’ll go into an even deeper hole’. I said I would train, but I wouldn’t be training at my best. He said, ‘You’re young, what you’re going through in life is going to affect you’. I’ll always respect what he did for me in those four or five months when I wasn’t playing or wasn’t starting.”

A few months on, and Jones insists he is in much better place mentally and is looking forward to the challenge of the new campaign.

He is father now, and while he maintains some of the criticism over his performances last season was unwarranted, he is clearly determined to kick on again next term.

“This season, I want to be better than I was in the previous season,” he said. “People say I had a bad season, but I got eight goal contributions. My best season, I had nine goal contributions, and I played less games. If I had played the 14 games I missed, I would have had more goal contributions.

“This season, I want to grow as a person and have success with Boro. The manager spoke with me at the end of the season and just said, ‘Next season, be ready, after everything you’ve been through, it’s your time’.”