Burnley’s Lyle Foster taking break from football to receive mental health treatment

Burnley said Foster reached out for help due to ‘issues around his mental wellbeing’

Burnley striker Lyle Foster (Getty Images)

Burnley striker Lyle Foster is to take a break from football for an indefinite period as he receives treatment for his mental health.

Foster, 23, is Burnley’s top scorer this season with three goals but has missed their last three matches.

The Premier League side previously attributed Foster’s absence to an unspecified “illness”.

Burnley have now said Foster reached out for help due to “issues around his mental wellbeing”.

The club said in a statement: “He is currently in the care of specialists - giving him the support and care he needs to help him back to full health

"With the love and support of his family and everyone at Burnley Football Club, we will do all we can to provide everything he needs to get better."

The South Africa international has previously spoken about suffering with depression and said in an interview in July that he experienced loneliness when playing for a club in Belgium between August 2021 and January 2023.

Burnley’s statement added: “On behalf of Lyle Foster and his family, they have asked us to share with you an update on Lyle’s illness.

“Recently, Lyle let us know that he continues to live with issues around his mental wellbeing and has reached out for help.”

The club did not specify how long Foster would be unavailable for while he receives treatment.

The striker has scored three goals in the Premier League this season, but has not featured since a 3-0 defeat to Brentford on October 21.

Burnley added: “We ask for your understanding and respect Lyle’s privacy around this matter and will not be making any more comment until further notice.”

Manager Vincent Kompany told the official Burnley website: “As a club we’ve very quickly and very naturally took the decision to support him and support his family.

“We have offered him access to all the expertise and clinical support that he needs.

“At the moment we’re wishing him a speedy recovery and wishing him to be in a better place by the time he’s ready to come back to us.

“We were very fortunate that Lyle had been very open with us and from that moment we were able to act.

“As soon as he said it and showed signs of how severe it was for him, straight away the entire support team within the club mobilised and we made sure that he could focus on his own recovery.

“In moments like this you have to put the human first and that’s what we did.

“We’ll provide the best care possible for him to get over his mental health issues, and it’s not something in this world that is a taboo.

“It was breaking point for him and we felt also we could show how much we were dedicated to the players with us, but the people with us.

“We’re doing everything we can to get him to a place where he can do what he enjoys doing the most, which is playing football as soon as possible, because that will also affect his mental well-being positively in the future.

“But at this moment he’s one of us and we need to look after our own.”