Dutch right-back Gregory Van Der Wiel announced on Monday that he is suffering from depression. The former defender of Ajax, PSG, Fenerbahçe, Cagliari and Toronto has written an extensive statement on his social networks in which he has revealed that for more than a year he has suffered from “panic and anxiety attacks”.
Van der Wiel, who has made 46 caps for the Netherlands, says in his statement that “It's something that started when I was relaxing at my home in Los Angeles. At that moment, I didn't know what was happening to me, I thought I was having a heart attack. At first I thought something was wrong physically. But with different hospitals and doctors, we checked my whole body and the conclusion was that everything was working optimally. After this confirmation, I started to focus on the mental aspect, which I still work on to this day. The player is currently undergoing treatment to try to overcome this disease.
The last team in which the Dutch full-back played was Toronto, a club with which he had to terminate his contract due to the problems that the player himself has revealed. Last August, the defender was introduced as a new Waalwijk player, but his health problems led him to rescind. Van Der Wiel started the World Cup final in South Africa against Spain.