Adams passing triggers mental health debate, expert weighs in

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Adams passing triggers mental health debate, expert weighs in

Aug 17, 2026 – 08:53 pm
By Thato Bosoga

Following the untimely passing of former Mamelodi Sundowns midfielder Jayden Adams, KickOff tackled the issue of mental health and its relation to performance for footballers, with an expert in the field, Jordan Byrne.

There is an overriding narrative painted, particularly on social media, that Adams could have been dealing with issues of mental health during his time in camp with Bafana Bafana at the 2026 FIFA World Cup, especially following the news of the passing away of his grandmother.

Calls are beginning to gain momentum that football clubs and associations have to take the field of sport psychology support for professional players, who go on to play at the biggest stages like the World Cup, seriously.

Byrne, who is a Mental Performance and Sport Psychology expert, explained, speaking to this website, how the two fields are related but differ in relation to what sportsmen go through.

The University of the Western Cape alumni also stressed the importance of psychological education from a very young age.

“We can split this into two different things, let’s talk about your general well-being, psychological well-being as a human and then we talk about performance psychology,” Byrne said.

“And while they are very much linked, they are two separate things. If we’re talking about general well-being, it’s natural for a person to feel emotional about losing someone or losing your job.

“If we’re not taught how to deal with these emotions from a young age appropriately, we find all sorts of coping mechanisms to deal with day to day, be it substance abuse, or any other disruptive behavior,” Byrne explained.

“Some people keep quiet, they bottle everything up, that’s their way of coping. It’s not a healthy way of doing it. So if we’re not taught from a young age how to process those emotions appropriately, we’re not really equipped when major life events do happen, which inevitably happens to everyone.”

Byrne went on and admitted that if a footballer, for instance, does not have a proper base or support on how to process emotions, it can be “a recipe for disaster”.

“If we don’t have people around us or we’re not equipped, it is a recipe for disaster. It (the loss of someone) can trigger anxiety and depression and episodes of psychosis or other issues,” Byrne continued.

“A lot of work I’ve done in youth academies is what we call psycho education, which is basically from a young age we start the basics on what emotions are, how we experience them and appropriate ways to deal with both negative and positive emotions.

“It’s very easy to talk about the negative side, which is a massive factor but the positive emotions too. If we’re not managing our positive emotions correctly, it can lead us to over-confidence and arrogance-type of a thing,” Byrne added.

For professional help, Byrne can be reached on Instagram: @MindMattersPerformance (Mind Matters) and via email: [email protected].

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