Dr Amanda Wilding Pinckney is a sports psychologist who has worked with many semi-pro players going through the same struggles, she said: “When players are out for a substantial period of time. That loss of identity is huge because they go from being with their team almost every day to suddenly being really isolated. Sometimes they don’t even come in to the club, or some sit in the physio room all day, every day. The boredom of not being able to do anything is really hard."

 Both Stainer-Reid and Seuny’s stories highlight a wider truth within non-league football: when formal mental-health structures are not there, players are pushed into doing it themselves.

For some, like Stainer-Reid, that means finding new routines to fill the sudden absence of football. For others, like Seuny, internal factors play a big part, drawing on things such as faith to guide him through his recovery process.  

It is not just injuries that can cause stress for players at this level. Unlike players higher up the football pyramid, semi-professional players have limited support when it comes to their mental health. They juggle their football careers alongside working a job and any injuries or families they may have on top of that. When you combine the lot, it can lead to some stressful times for some players.  

According to Half Turn’s survey, 79% of surveyed players said juggling a job and football is stressful. 

Stainer-Reid said: “Obviously most people here are part time, so you have to manage your work hours and your football hours because if you’re travelling down from London it’s going to take a lot more of your day up. Obviously, there’s a whole challenge of being able to combine the two. It’s quite hard and then additionally it’s getting to training, it’s making sure you’re there on match days. So, it’s a lot of time out of the day, just to commit to a football match which is only semi-professional."

Footballers at a professional level have 24/7 access to the Professional Footballers Association (PFA), an organisation which provides support for any needs players may have. This includes dedicated mental health support which contains a 24/7 confidential counselling helpline that players can call for any mental wellbeing issues.  

Dr Wilding Pinckney said: “Semi-professionals can’t tap into the PFA. So, I think they need that kind of thing at a semi-professional level because in so many ways they’re more vulnerable."

The alternative for semi-pro’s is to find support from independent organisations such as Half Turn however the level of funding behind these organisations is nowhere near what the PFA receives from the Premier League and EFL. 

Max Oldham said: “They scream and shout about mental health, but they don't do anything. If you look at every club, social media, whether it's non-league or professional, they'll all do something when it's mental health awareness day. But do they actually help their players? And I can tell you, especially in non-league, they don't. And there's a lot of people out there that really, really need it.”

Oldham is the founder of Half Turn. His own experiences inside semi-pro football led him to setting up the organisation after seeing first-hand what is available to players.  

“After lockdown I hadn’t seen one of my friends in a while and when we started training together, he admitted to me he had a really bad gambling problem.  

“We tried to get help from the club and from other people we knew but we didn’t have any resources. That was kind of the point at which I thought to myself, okay, I’m just going to do it myself.” 

Oldham’s foundation offers players a variety of services such as a confidential support service, an online hub of information on emotional and financial wellbeing, career pathways, and a team of experts on hand to help.  

Oldham believes the main reason for the lack of support services for players is down to clubs not wanting to spend their money on it.  

“They'd rather spend their money in other ways that has a tangible return on investment. And that's the problem; you're investing in the player's mental health. But can you directly correlate that to more points won or more goals scored or more people through the gate? No, it's hard to do that.” 

Several voices said that to get more support, the issue needs to be more widely recognised.  

Stainer-Reid said: “It’s definitely something that’s coming on and definitely something that I’m encouraging because every player is going to struggle throughout their career and it’s just about supporting them when they do.” 

Oldham said: “There's still too much of a stigma around mental health. I know it's spoken about a lot, and the stigma has lessened significantly. But in terms of the scale of importance, it falls quite low on the pecking order. 

“If the governing body of football said that this is a mandatory thing that you need to do, clubs would do it.” 

Dr Wilding Pinckney’s approach shows what is possible when players can achieve with the right psychological support. Yet in semi-professional football, this level of guidance is only possible when players go to external support such as psychologists. 

So, what need do these people think needs to be done? 

These people believe that the gap in support is not going to get any better unless people start taking action and holding those accountable to question.  

Work needs to be done from both clubs and the responsible footballing bodies such as the FA. I did attempt to contact several semi-pro clubs in the Dorset area and the Dorset FA for comment on this topic however was unable to get a statement from them. 

Danny Matharu, founder of The Football Mental Health Alliance (TFMHA), said: “There needs to be directives from the top. Mental health needs to be on the same level as safeguarding is in football.”

TFMHA was set up to provide mental health training and resources to clubs and players alike.   The organisation is trying to get every club to have a minimum of one person who can deal with any mental health issues. Matharu said: “We think that you need to have one mental health first aid trained individual, so you have a point of contact and people at the clubs know who to go to.” 

“If the team’s captain is mental health first aid trained, he’s the conduit between the manager and the players. He’s in the dressing room all the time and will be able to see the signs of his players who may be struggling.” 

Stainer-Reid spoke on if he thought this change would be positive for clubs and players, he said: “100% because if you have someone you can turn to that’s going to be so beneficial to you and the club as a whole because it’ll be a massive draw factor.  

“If you know that you are looking after your players not only on the pitch but off the pitch mentally, then it’s so important to have something like that in place at every club.” 

All of the voices involved in this piece made slightly different suggestions however a common theme that kept cropping up was the need to have someone inside clubs that players can access easily.  

Dr Wilding Pinckney said: “I think every club should have some kind of wellbeing person. Whether that be a performance lifestyle practitioner or a psychologist.”

“Arguably the professional players have got so much money they could go and sort themselves out. I think the money should be invested into the semi-pro level where they don't get the same money, but they also have more pressures because they have a dual career” she added. 

Oldham said: “Having access to the tools to be pre-emptive and proactive with your mental health would be my ideal way of looking at it, having a platform that everyone can access free of charge.”

He added: “And then for those with acute needs, the people that are really struggling with something or have a history of depression or anxiety, getting them access to a licensed clinical professional.” 

Semi-professional football may run on limited resources but the voices within the sport make one thing clear: the mental health of its players can no longer be an afterthought.