Burnley striker Lyle Foster taking break from football over mental health issues
Lyle Foster is sidelined indefinitely for Burnley after the club revealed the South Africa striker has been hit by fresh mental health problems.
Foster’s absence is a huge blow for Burnley as they battle relegation and he was their top scorer with three Premier League goals and two assists from seven appearances.
Foster spoke about the issues he dealt with at his former club Westerlo in Belgium in an interview in the summer and he admitted he struggled to get out of bed some days.
Burnley have worked hard to make Foster feel settled at Turf Moor since his £11million switch in January and he thanked assistant coach Craig Bellamy, who has battled his own demons, for helping him.
Foster has been absent since he pulled out of the defeat at Bournemouth, even though he had travelled down with the squad, and now the club have confirmed he has been struck down again by mental health issues.
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Manager Vincent Kompany said: “Lyle has been having issues with his mental well being and as his club, we’ve naturally made a decision to fully support him.
“He’ll get all the expertise and clinical support that he needs. “We’re wishing him a speedy recovery and to be in a better place by the time he’s ready to come back. We were very fortunate with Lyle, he’s been very open and from that moment we were able to act.
“As soon as he showed signs of how severe it was, the entire support team just mobilised so he could focus on his own recovery. You have to put the human first at moments like this.
Foster celebrates after scoring for Burnley“Where Lyle is lucky is that he has a good network around him, a healthy supportive family - a club and people who want to support him not only for the player he is, but the person as well. We’ll provide all the help we can to get him over his mental health issues.
“Now we’re doing everything to get him to a place where he can do what he enjoys most, which is playing football. That will affect his mental well being positively in the future. But for now he’s one of us and we need to look after one of our own.”
Burnley said in a statement: “He is currently in the care of specialists - giving him the support and care he needs to help him back to full health.
“With the love and support of his family and everyone at Burnley Football Club we will do all we can to provide everything he needs to get better.”
While Burnley’s priority is helping Foster, his loss is yet another problem for Kompany and his struggling side were already the Premier League’s lowest scorers with just eight goals from their 11 games.
Foster’s problems come when his career was taking off and he had just signed a new five-year contract until June 2028. Losing their top scorer for an indefinite period only adds to Burnley’s woes and the Clarets do not have another proven top-flight marksman.
Burnley have just four points ahead of Saturday’s daunting trip to Arsenal and are fighting to avoid an immediate return to the Championship.
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