Jonjo Shelvey has opened up about becoming addicted to sleeping pills when he moved to Turkey, saying it was the most difficult time of his life.
The England international midfielder joined Çaykur Rizespor from Nottingham Forest in 2023, a club based in Rize.
He played 33 times in his one season with the team, but it was a dark time in his life as he became reliant on sleeping tablets.
The loneliness of moving to a new country by himself and finding the local culture so different from what he was used to in the UK led him to take the medication out of boredom.
It became a serious problem, though, and his relationship with his family suffered.
Speaking on the UndrTheCosh podcast, the 33-year-old said: ‘I went to Turkey for 18 months and lived by myself and it was the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life.
‘I ended up becoming addicted to sleeping tablets because I’d just got home from training and to pass time. I’d think, “what am I going to do now?”
‘I was in a city that was a Muslim-orientated city. There was like three restaurants. To pass time I’d just end up taking three or four sleeping tablets and I’d pass out until the next morning for training. Just to pass the time and it’d become an addiction.’
‘I’d take three or four sleeping tablets and then wake up about 12 o’clock at night, pop three or four more’
After a year in Rize, Shelvey moved to Eyüpspor in Istanbul, but that did not solve the problem.
‘Then I moved to Istanbul. Istanbul was a bit more vibrant city. You could go out and… But I was there by myself again. So I’m not one to go out by myself. I hate being alone,’ he said.
‘I thought to myself, I could go one way or the other I could go and drink myself to pass time. Drink’s no good for a footballer It’s not a good tool.
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‘But I thought instead of drinking I’d carry on with the sleeping tablets. So that would be a way of passing my time. So I’m not putting on fat drinking pints in a pub. So I’d go back to my apartment and train, sleeping tablets.
‘I’d get home at one, half one, three o’clock. I’d have a bit of food and that’d be my last meal.
‘Then I’d take three or four sleeping tablets and then wake up about 12 o’clock at night, pop three or four more. And then wake up for training the next day.’
‘It destroyed my relationship with my kids’
The sleeping pills had consequences that Shelvey did not expect, from a damaged relationship with his children to sending messages to his manager that he couldn’t remember sending.
‘To be honest, it destroyed my relationship with my kids,’ he said. ‘I was never present. This is probably the first time I’ve ever spoken about it. I was lucky that my misses is such a good woman that she kicked it out of me.
‘The worrying thing is that I’d looked at my phone the next morning, I’m reading back over texts I’d sent, it was like, “what the f**k! what have you sent?”
‘I’d sent the manager in Turkey, who don’t speak English, who I think should be playing out the team and stuff like that.’
Sleeping pill addiction 'widespread' in football
Another former England midfielder, Dele Alli, revealed in 2023 that he had been addicted to sleeping pills.
Gary Bloom, who previously worked as a psychotherapist with Oxford United, said the issue is widespread in the sport.
‘Addiction to sleeping tablets is widespread, much more than people realise. There is also widespread use of caffeine stimulants for matches,’ Bloom told the BBC.
‘Players are pretty wired during games because they want to give themselves a legal buzz for when they are playing – but then they cannot get to sleep at night.
‘They are therefore prescribed sleeping tablets and the cycle goes on.’
Shelvey suggested that he is far from the only footballer who has struggled with becoming dependent on sleeping tablets.
‘It’s so bad. It’s so bad. I’m lucky that I’ve had people around me, family especially, that have sort of kicked it out of me,’ he said.
‘I think it’s so easily accessible. And to be fair I went looking for them. I found a website online, you could just put in what you want, buy them and bosh, get them delivered to your gaff.
‘It got bad. I’d come home from Turkey for three days and go and see the kids. They’re talking to me but I’m not present. Ever since I’ve got off them my relationship with the kids has just gone [points up] bang!’
After a brief spell with Burnley, Shelvey most recently joined UAE side Arabian Falcons in September last year.