DELE ALLI has revealed he considered RETIRING from football at the age of 24 after former Tottenham boss Jose Mourinho labelled him "lazy".
The ex-Spurs forward, 27, has been on the decline over the past five years as he struggles to regain the form which saw him excel as an England regular.
Leaving Tottenham for Everton in January 2022, he failed to register a goal or assist in 13 games for the Toffees.
This saw him farmed out on loan to Besiktas – where he left in April due to injury.
Now, in an interview with Gary Neville on The Overlap, he has opened up about the struggles he has gone through.
And he has pointed to Mourinho's time at Tottenham – between 2019 and 2021 – as his lowest ebb, when he even considered hanging up his boots.
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He said: "It's hard to pinpoint one exact moment [when he started to feel things weren't right].
"Probably the saddest moment for me, was when Mourinho was manager, I think I was 24.
"I remember there was one session, like one morning I woke up and I had to go to training – this is when he'd stopped playing me – and I was in a bad place.
"I remember just looking in the mirror – I mean it sounds dramatic but I was literally staring in the mirror – and I was asking if I could retire now, at 24, doing the thing I love.
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4"For me, that was heartbreaking to even have had that thought at 24, to want to retire.
"That hurt me a lot, that was another thing that I had to carry."
An All or Nothing Amazon documentary released showing footage at Tottenham contained a scene between Mourinho and Alli in which the Portuguese manager gave his player a dressing down.
During the 2019/20 season, Mourinho told Alli: "You're a f***ing lazy guy. I'm going to be a pain in the a*** on you and you are lucky, you are lucky.
"When I am a pain in then a*** it is a good thing."
Directly referencing that moment, Alli told Neville: "That lazy comment, people love to bring that up, that interview obviously was on Amazon.
"He called me lazy – that was the day after recovery day.
"A week later, he apologised for me for calling me lazy because he'd seen me actually train and play.
"But that wasn't in the documentary, and no one spoke up about that because it was only me and him.
"In the team meeting, he called me lazy but then one-on-one, I think it was on the pitch, he apologised for it."
He added: "I didn't think anything of it at the time because I know myself – I'm not lazy.
"What you see sometimes isn't the way it really is. I think, especially now with social media and all these things, we can really portray something that isn't real.
"After that, I think people definitely tried to use that, for some other decisions.
"I think other coaches, maybe, for other reasons why I wasn't playing, they stuck to that – lazy one – because it was kind of an easy, easy one to use.
"And the problem was probably more than that, I think."
Alli also spoke about his battle with sleeping tablets – which ended up with him spending six weeks in rehab.
The bombshell interview also saw him reveal how he was sexually abused by a friend of his mum when he was just six-year-old.
He remains under contract with Everton until next summer and is waiting to see whether he will receive a second chance under head coach Sean Dyche.
He is currently recovering from a muscle injury, with the Toffees' first Premier League game of the season coming at home to Fulham on August 12.
And he has been named in the Everton squad for their pre-season tour of Switzerland.
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Meanwhile, Alli's partner Cindy Kimberly has offered a message of support for her boyfriend.
Reacting to the interview on social media, she said: "Proud of you."
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