Striker on struggles with alcohol at Middlesbrough FC and Hull City - 'It was killing me, my life was so unmanageable'

The former Middlesbrough loanee was released by the Tigers at the end of last season and checked into a clinic this summer for his alcoholism.

The Republic of Ireland international joined Sunderland as a free agent in September, and has spoken to his new club's official website in a moving interview to mark Mental Health Day.

Connolly admits his promising career went off the rails after scoring his first two Premier League goals in a 3-0 win for Brighton and Hove Albion over Tottenham Hotspur.

He says he lost his way after that, and did not get it back until after he left Hull – despite the efforts of then-coach Liam Rosenior.

"I remember October 5, 2019, 12.30 kick-off," he said of his breakout game. "I'm never going to forget that day.

"It was one of the best days of my life but also one of the worst because the following five years was from that.

"I stopped working, I stopped doing the things I should have kept doing. I started to believe the hype and I didn't turn into a good person after that. I was tough to be around, no one could tell me anything. I'd done it all myself, nobody else helped me to get to where I got to.

"That's what I believed – it's obviously not true.

"I didn't know how to deal with it.

"I started to live the lifestyle of a footballer, without the football side of it. That was the hardest bit to admit at the time, that I wasn't doing all the things that got me into the position where I could get my house and treat my family.

"I stopped doing the stuff that got me paid for that – working hard every day.

"If I'd done everything right maybe I'd been in the Premier League, maybe I wouldn't."

Brighton loaned Connolly to Luton Town, Middlesbrough and Venezia before his former Seagulls coach Rosenior took him to East Yorkshire – initially on loan in January 2023, then permanently in the summer.

Connolly scored 10 goals in 35 appearances for Hull, but it was clear he was not fulfilling his potential and it was no great shock when he was let go at the end of last season.

"I don't think it's much of a secret to any of the fans at them (loan) clubs that I had problems off the pitch," admitted Connolly. "It was highlighted a lot because of where I was to where I ended up, in the second division in Italy not being able to get a game of football. That was in the space of two years after the Tottenham game.

"I was always chasing things that before that Tottenahm game I was never chasing. I was never chasing money, I was never chasing people on social media talking about me. I didn't start playing football for that reason.

"It never popped into my mind once when I was seven, eight, nine, 10.

"The loans were a sign of what I was doing wrong at Brighton."

The biggest problem, says the 24-year-old, was alcohol.

"It was obvious I had a problem with alcohol for a good few years," he said.

"I had my parents, who never drank before, always telling me when I was younger to stay away from alcohol because of addiction to alcohol in my family.

"I didn't listen, clearly, and it got me in a lot of trouble. It just became something I relied on.

"It felt like my buzz used to come from football and winning games and scoring goals and it got to a point where the buzz was more from drinking alcohol than going out on a football pitch.

"I used to look forward to the games finishing so I could have time to go and have a drink, to go straight to alcohol. That was where I got my buzz from. Before it was always the buzz of football.

"For three, four years, that just wasn't there.

"I decided at the end of July it was too much, I couldn't live the way I was living because it was killing people around me – my family, my friends. Mainly it was killing me.

"I had one of my best seasons last season at Hull but off the pitch my life was a mess.

"The manager at Hull (Rosenior), to be fair, always looked after me and tried to help but it just got to a point where... it wasn't that life wasn't worth living, it wasn't a big dramatic thing, it was just my life was so unmanageable and I couldn't control what I would do or my alcohol.

"It just got to a point where I needed to go to a treatment clinic and I spent a month there in the summer.

"It wasn't even the football in the end that was taking the biggest beating, it was my life, my relationships, my family, my friends, everything was just failing and falling apart."

You can watch the interview in full here.