Greg Halford holds back tears as he bravely opens up on being diagnosed with autism and also spoke about how it impacted his career.
Speaking about his time at Reading, having joined after an impressive stint as a youngster with Colchester, he admits finding it difficult to fit in and in recent years former team mates had been critical of his behaviour.
Halford has now said that behaviour was down to having autism, which he didn’t realise he had at the time, but it was seeing traits with his son that made him get tested.
🚨 New Episode 🚨
Greg Halford | “I Wouldn’t Have Told Anyone In Football About My Autism”
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“Obviously, I haven’t told anyone this in the football world, but I am on the spectrum of autism so change and not knowing at that time and fitting into a new group of people,” Halford told the UndrTheCosh Podcast.
“Changing the way I lived, where I lived, being away from my family, my girlfriend at the time, I found it very very hard like it was hard to um interact with people I never after training I never wanted to go into the cafeteria cuz I didn’t want to be around… I felt awkward I didn’t it was just a weird sensation so I would just go home so I do my training um obviously being on the pitch is completely different like that’s that’s my area that’s I can control myself there but when it’s small intimate groups it’s always it I found it very very difficult at that sort of time.”
He was asked ‘do you think as well because you you weren’t straight in the team you said you feel better if you’re playing you’re all right so if you’d come in as number one right back playing these games you think you’d have settled in better on the back of getting more people on the pitch’.
To which he replied: “Yeah probably um cuz that’s how I found out about people that’s how I interacted with people and then obviously once they hear me on the pitch and know what type of person I am on the pitch it’s a little bit easier to interact with people.
He revealed he never went on a night out and that he had the diagnosis after seeing traits with his son.
“I did the diagnosis after I had my son when he was diagnosed, and he was he was exactly the same as me when I was his age, understanding everything I always knew that I was different in some kind of way I just didn’t I understand it yeah and so um it was one of them things where but football gave me that way of I was being put into so many different new situations that I was able to grow and by the time I was moving to places like Portsmouth I’d already had four or five moves and it was every time it was a lot easier to interact with people and I just learned and I grew and like I could just go into a new club today and be comfortable in doing that.”
“Yeah it was tough but at the same point if I if I’d known that diagnosis at that time I still wouldn’t have told anyone because I wanted to learned for myself I wanted to grow as a person and make the mistakes that I needed to make in order to be better in the future.”
He was asked if he has have known about the diagnosis, did he think being unable to settle has played a part in moving from club to club because from back management team looking from the outside looking in it might look like you’re not settling in.
He replied: Yeah I know what you mean yeah no 100% but again I still I I wouldn’t have told anyone I wouldn’t have told anyone like going from Keano who was obviously a hard ass um doing the way doing everything the way he wants it which was fine to Mick McCarthy next time it was difficult but I still wouldn’t have told him I still would have made my mistakes but at that time football’s changed so much now it’s you’re allowed to make mistakes and still play on a Saturday whereas back then when we were playing if you made a mistake you kind of out the team and that was that was the way it was and I made a few mistakes up in Sunderland and Keano washed his hands with me.”
On not wanting to be treated any different: “That’s what I didn’t want at that time I didn’t want any special treatment I didn’t want to do anything different I wanted them to take me as me at that time um and that is isn’t it yes it is but at the same time I didn’t want managers or coaching staff or players just to give me any sort of special treatment like I’m going to give him a bit more time because that he has this diagnosis or or what like I needed to make them mistakes uh for me as a person I didn’t do it for anyone else that was me as a person and that may be selfish but as much as football is a team sport people are still very selfish in this game.
On initiation songs: “And that’s where like the initiation songs come in to play. I just paid the fine. Yeah I just couldn’t do it couldn’t do it I’d like literally be sweating and shaking and I just I wouldn’t be able to move, here you go, here’s the money.
He adds he didn’t want to give the persona of coming across big time, but instead he was just caught inside himself.
HIS CAREER
Youth career
2001–2002 – Colchester United
Senior career
2002–2007 – Colchester United – 163 games (24 goals)
2003 → Braintree Town (loan)
2003 → Aylesbury United (loan)
2007 – Reading – 3 games (0 goals)
2007–2009 – Sunderland – 9 games (0 goals)
2008 → Charlton Athletic (loan) – 16 games (2 goals)
2008–2009 → Sheffield United (loan) – 49 games (8 goals)
2009–2011 – Wolverhampton Wanderers – 20 games (0 goals)
2010–2011 → Portsmouth (loan) – 33 games (5 goals)
2011–2012 – Portsmouth – 44 games (7 goals)
2012–2015 – Nottingham Forest – 82 games (8 goals)
2014–2015 → Brighton & Hove Albion (loan) – 20 games (0 goals)
2015–2017 – Rotherham United – 38 games (3 goals)
2015–2016 → Birmingham City (loan) – 3 games (0 goals)
2017–2018 – Cardiff City – 33 games (1 goal)
2019 – Aberdeen – 2 games (0 goals)
2020–2021 – Southend United – 16 games (1 goal)
2021 – Waterford – 17 games (2 goals)
2022 – Billericay Town – 14 games (2 goals)
2022– Hashtag United – 36 games (9 goals)
Total – 598 games (72 goals)
International career
2005 – England U20 – 4 games (1 goal)
Social media users showed respect towards Greg Halford, who holds back tears as he bravely opens up on being diagnosed with autism…
@trackstar9133: Great listen, wish Greg all the best
@DemizedTV: Top pro for Rotherham, Halford is the main reason I watch HTU. Keep it up greg utm ❤
@Del213: Pretty honest. Imagine many footballers have dropped out of football due to autism and must have made things very difficult. Easy to see by some of derogatory comments why you’d want to keep it quiet – some proper filth about and expect dressing rooms are full of them.
@terrystones1972: One of the best episodes I’ve watched. You sometimes never know what some of your teammates are dealing with.
@joey__burton__: Not an easy thing to talk about at all either
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