Ryan Sessegnon delivers an instinctive one-word answer when asked how he would sum up his time at Tottenham Hotspur: "Rollercoaster... I don't even know where to begin."
Since the defender joined Spurs in a £25 million move from Fulham in August 2019, he has experienced four different permanent managers, one caretaker, persistent injury problems and a loan spell in Germany during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. That combination would be a tough challenge for anyone, let alone a 21-year-old looking to establish himself in the Premier League, and Sessegnon realised he needed help.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with ESPN, Sessegnon is admirably candid about sourcing his own psychologist for sessions over Zoom after yet another fitness setback, a thigh problem that curtailed his progress on loan at Bundesliga club Hoffenheim during the 2020-21 season.
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"I first started speaking to someone when I went to Germany because there was a little spell where... at the start, it started well and then there was a little problem injury-wise," he said. "And I started thinking too much about my game. I wasn't feeling free. I wasn't doing things that I was doing before, so I started speaking to someone about the mental side of the game and how doubts can creep into your mind, distract you and put you down. So it was more about bringing self-belief and positivity into your thoughts."
Although clubs are slowly addressing the long-neglected area of mental health, Manchester United became one of the latest English teams to appoint a sports psychologist in December when interim boss Ralf Rangnick hired Sascha Lense. Sessegnon's decision to source his own counsel independently is a testament to his willingness to leave no stone unturned in pursuit of a successful career.
Sessegnon has never spoken publicly in this detail before about seeing a psychologist, and he does so now while recovering from his latest injury setback, another hamstring problem which abruptly halted his streak of six consecutive appearances from Feb. 13 to March 7, his longest run in the Tottenham first team.
To date, Sessegnon has made 27 appearances for Spurs, a tally still fewer than the 29 outings he made for Hoffenheim during his eight-month spell in the Bundesliga. That total of 56 appearances is outweighed by the 62 games he has missed for both clubs due to fitness issues which led Tottenham head coach Antonio Conte to declare last month: "I think that there is a predisposition [for Sessegnon] to have this type of problem and especially muscular problems. He's very strong physically. Sometimes maybe to be so strong physically, instead of being good for your body, sometimes it can be a problem."
After having this quote put to him, Sessegnon replied: "Definitely it is something that I have to manage because I am at a stage where... coming through when I was a bit younger at Fulham, I had no injuries.
"And then I'm at Spurs now and I've had a few problems but as I'm getting older, I need to start managing the intensity of training, the way I train. Obviously under Conte, the training is intense anyway but it is about being a bit more mature and smart in certain sessions here and there, not going 100% -- that's just my nature and the way I play. It is just knowing your body, being smart and trying to be available every game. So going forward I'm trying to learn these things."
It has been a steep learning curve at Tottenham for the England Under-21 international, born in Roehampton, south-west London, and part of a strong family football heritage: twin brother, Steven plays at Plymouth Argyle on loan from Fulham, elder brother Chris is a semi-professional, and cousin Stephane has enjoyed a 17-year playing career, most recently appearing for Turkish side Genclerbirligi.
Spurs tracked Sessegnon for several years as a teenager at Fulham after he broke into the first team in 2016, quickly gaining a reputation as a dynamic attack-minded left-back with fearsome pace and an eye for goal. Liverpool and Manchester United were among the clubs tracking Sessegnon as Fulham were promoted to the Premier League in 2018 and subsequently relegated a year later, but not before he became the first player born in the 2000s to score a goal in English football's top flight.
Then-Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino was the decisive factor in Sessegnon's move across the capital, but that transfer coincided with the start of his persistent hamstring issues, succumbing for the first time while with England at the 2019 European U21 Championships. A four-month rehabilitation period followed, and as a result, he only played for Spurs twice under Pochettino.
"When I was a bit younger, I was aware that Spurs wanted me to sign previous to when I did, but when I eventually did, he was the main reason why," explained Sessegnon. "Obviously I knew his track record with young players at the club. I looked at that and thought it was a good opportunity for me to come and play a lot of games at a young age under him. When he went, it was difficult because he was the main reason why I signed and when I was coming back to full fitness, a new manager had come in.
"In terms of me getting to know him as a person, the way he wants to play, I couldn't take anything [from him] because literally he was gone when I was ready to come back in. In terms of myself, I think I learned a lot about myself in that period mentally. It shaped it into the person I've become."