Ex-academy player helping others 'left devastated'

Ross Colquhoun founded The Training Club after he was dropped from Sunderland AFC's academy

A former Sunderland academy player, dropped from its youth development squad, has opened a gym to help others in the same position.

Ross Colquhoun, 27, joined the Academy of Light at nine years old, and said it was devastating to be released when he was 19.

He said the identity shift once he stopped pursing football was "really difficult to deal with".

Robin Nicholls, academy manager at Sunderland AFC, said the club always strives to do better, and its understanding of "welfare and the social issues has really increased over the last 10 years".

Mr Colquhoun set up The Training Club in 2020, an all-male personal training gym which supports members with both their physical fitness and mental health, including other ex-academy footballers.

He said the experience of being dropped by the club left him "having meltdowns".

"There wasn’t a day I wouldn’t touch a football," he said. "It was all I knew and it was all I wanted to do.

"I remember on New Years Eve I just broke down crying, like 'what am I doing with my life?'"

Ross Colquhoun says he faced an identity crisis when he was dropped from Sunderland's youth academy

Jordan Lavender, 30, a former Sunderland academy player, said he enjoys attending the gym, as it allows him to be part of a team again.

"It replicates what that football team was for me growing up, so it’s somewhere I feel comfortable," he said.

Mr Colquhoun said he is proud his gym allows ex-academy players to "express themselves and relive that high performance environment".

Sunderland AFC says the welfare of young players has been put more centrally since the Premier League introduced the Elite Player Performance Plan in 2012, a long-term strategy to improve the academy system.

Mr Nicholls added: "We provide aftercare to the players that is far greater than it was.

"The journey that academies, and Sunderland itself, have been on over the past 10 years has been really positive."