England legend Terry Butcher says today’s stars must keep their minds clear, as mental resilience can make the difference at major tournaments and it’s vital
England’s stars must ignore online abuse and keep their minds clear to end 60 years of hurt, according to Three Lions’ World Cup legend Terry Butcher.
The 77-cap defender – famous for playing on with a blood-drenched bandage in a 1989 World Cup qualifier against Sweden – said mental resilience can make the difference at major tournaments. He said to win the World Cup Thomas Tuchel ’s team must be ‘mentally stronger’ than their opponents.
That involves blocking out social media trolls who target players for the slightest slip. Marcus Rashford, Jason Sancho and Bukayo Saka were racially abused by keyboard cowards after missing penalties in the Euro 2020 shootout defeat by Italy at Wembley.
Butcher said mental toughness was more important than physical strength for modern footballers. Speaking ahead of the broadcast of ITV documentary Butcher: Invisible Wounds, he said: “I want them to go out onto the field empty of thoughts, empty of thinking about the negative things.
“When it comes to penalties that was when it really hit the headlines because of all the trolling and all the negative things. But when you play for England especially you’ve got to concentrate more on the game, more than you’ve ever done for your club.
“Things can happen – you can get that headline of ‘you missed a penalty’, or ‘you missed a chance’, or ‘you made a bad tackle’ or ‘you scored an own goal’, and all these negative things will come later on. But when you are on that pitch you’ve got to be prepared to have positive thoughts.”
The ex-Ipswich Town and Rangers defender said he hoped England’s backroom staff included mental performance specialists to help players cope with the pressures of tournament football. “You can be better than your opponent in terms of your football quality and skills, but the second thing is be mentally stronger than your opponent, because mental strength is an asset, positive mental strength is an asset,” he said.
“I would like to think with the squad, there’s maybe someone out there that is a mental health expert or is giving them advice. I’m sure there is. I’m sure he will be or she will be an integral part of the team behind the team.
“I hope that that’s the case. If not, then the players obviously can do something themselves and be more positive and ignore any negativity. I think once you clear your mind that’s when you’re going to play at your best.”
In recent years Butcher’s views on mental resilience have been shaped by experiences far beyond football. His eldest son Christopher, a former Royal Artillery captain who developed post traumatic stress disorder after serving tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, died in 2017 aged 35.
Terry, 67, said the programme reflected the contrast between his visible football injuries and the unseen trauma experienced by many former servicemen he hoped would be encouraged to seek help.
He said he had never forgiven Diego Maradona for his ‘Hand of God’ that helped knock England out of the 1986 World Cup quarter-final. Minutes later the Argentinian superstar scored a second goal many consider the greatest in World Cup history.
But Butcher said: “I felt so disappointed by Maradona’s handball incident. Then he beat me twice on that mazy run for the second goal. “We should have gone further and I should have done my job better. I always beat myself up about that.”
Terry said he always used to love it when auld enemy Scotland was knocked out of tournaments. “I’m really pleased Scotland made the World Cup finals,” he said. “They have the best chance they’ve ever had of reaching the knock out stages.
“We always used to say they come home before the postcards arrived. When we were away with England at tournaments we used to love it when Scotland got knocked out. It was one of the highlights of the tournament to be brutally honest. But having played in Scotland I really do hope they get through.”
Social media watchdog Ofcom has written to online platforms ahead of the World Cup to make sure they protect footballers and pundits from harm at the hands of trolls during the tournament.