Man United prodigy Tom Thorpe was patronised by Louis van Gaal, ravaged by horror injuries and plagued by mental health issues… now he is making his mark by passing on his experiences to the next generation

Tom Thorpe is recalling what was, to every other onlooker, his finest moment for boyhood club Manchester United.

Having been with them since the age of six, his senior debut – given to him by Louis van Gaal against West Ham in the Premier League – was meant to be a momentous day for the lifelong fan, marking his journey through the academy, right to the very top.

Only he wasn’t made to feel that way.

‘I played at Old Trafford, came on for [Angel] Di Maria, great experience,’ he tells Mail Sport.

‘It was soured by the manager at the time. It was a patronising slap on the cheek and “You’re welcome”.

The former United prodigy was criticial of then boss Louis van Gaal’s reaction

‘That made me feel as though all the hard work that I’d done over 15 years was, I guess, not warranted.

‘It was a case of I was handed it as a favour rather than it being something that I’d earned.

‘I look back at it. I’m obviously proud of it, but there’s that slight tainted feeling towards it.’

It was the only occasion Thorpe would play for the first team, a series of freak injuries and mental health issues bringing his career to a shuddering halt in 2018.

His story shines a light on the darker side of life in football, the battles beyond the pitch. As sport’s biggest names begin to open up on the struggles at the top, Thorpe wants to share his story, too.

Mail Sports meets Thorpe at St Mary’s stadium in Southampton. A former Championship regular, he once would have expected to grace the ground as a player, turning up on a Saturday afternoon.

Today though, a Wednesday morning, he’s up in front of a different crowd. A group of 260 delegates from professional teams and governing bodies across British sport have squeezed into the Mick Shannon suite to hear him talk on behalf of Sporting Chance – the clinic set up by Tony Adams, aimed at helping professional sportsmen and women with addiction and mental health issues.

It is not where Thorpe would have seen himself a few years ago, given his trajectory at United.

He was Under 21s captain, wearing the armband when a team that included Paul Pogba, Ravel Morrison, Jessie Lingard and Sam Johnstone lifted the FA Youth Cup in 2011. Big things were expected of him, too.

‘I had some amazing memories and happy times, winning trophies, going through the England camps,’ he says. ‘I look back with fond memories.

 Thorpe has opened up about his battles with mental health issues while in football

The centre back was captain of a youth team that included Paul Pogba and Jessie Lingard

‘I think the funny thing is only as you get older, do you look back and realise the amount of pressure that I was applying to myself at the time.’

Coming through at the country’s biggest club, demands were naturally high. But it was the unattainable standards he set himself that began to cause the defender problems.

‘I never felt at the time the pressure of captaincy, I was just my own biggest critic,’ he says.

‘It didn’t matter if I had 50 people saying “you were amazing today”. If I thought I’d done one thing wrong, that is what my focus would have been on.

‘That became more apparent as I moved through, left United and went out elsewhere in the leagues.’

It was in his bid to get first team experience away from Old Trafford that his injury nightmare reared its ugly head.

Having joined Birmingham City on loan, his senior debut in football lasted just 14 minutes.

‘There was a corner coming in and me and the guy who was marking me both jumped for it,’ he explains.

Thorpe spoke about his personal experiences at a Sporting Chance event in Southampton

Thorpe celebrates United’s FA Youth Cup title with Pogba and Lingard back in 2011

‘I landed normally and he landed on top of my calf, which caused all my ankle ligaments to snap. It caused my heel bone to crack and I broke my ankle as well.

‘It was obviously traumatic for me to deal with, but then the added mental aspect of “why now?”, I think that that was a big hurdle.

The hurdles kept coming. The ligaments in his other ankle snapped – another setback. After finding himself without a club, following stints at Rotherham and in India, a freak accident in the gym saw him needing two pins in his elbow after a box gave way from underneath him.

‘It was a very difficult time of trying to get myself out of, what felt like a bottomless pit,’ he says.

‘Human nature tells you if there’s light at the end of the tunnel, then you can keep going and you can strive for it. Whereas with depression, there’s just no light, you’re just in this abyss.

‘I could see the effect that it was having on my mum and dad. That made me finally decide to take the step of calling Sporting Chance.’

Thorpe is using his own experiences to help young players coming through academies today

It proved to be the key that turned the lock in Thorpe’s bid to escape his depression. They took his call and set him up with a therapist, one of 250 the charity gives sport stars access to across the UK.

Getting a handle on his condition, Thorpe was able to rekindle his love for a game that had thrown so much at him.

He was invited to a WhatsApp group for a regular nine-a-side kick-about in Manchester, involving the likes of Danny Simpson Papiss Cisse. A move back into non-league followed as he joined Macclesfield. He’s now at Stalybridge Celtic.

He is also back at Manchester United, training at Carrington as part of the club’s own alumni initiative to help former graduates re-connect with the game.

Owing much to his second lease of life in football to Sporting Chance, Thorpe is returning the favour, running workshops for youth players up and down the country.

The charity supported nearly 1,400 athletes with clinical help last year – a number that appears ever-growing in such a pressurised environment.

Thorpe had spells at both Birmingham City and Rotherham United in the Championship

That the number seeking help is rising, should be seen as a success, Thorpe argues.

‘The age group of me growing up, if somebody came in and did a presentation, there’s not one person in the changing room who would say, ‘yeah this applies to me’, he says.

‘You’d be fearful of what people think – of what a coach would think. It shouldn’t be seen as being weak.

‘Football in particular still has this big stigma behind it. I think it’s changing slowly. I think it’s changing slowly and with the help of charities like Sporting Chance it’s definitely improving.’