A Premier League boss has issued some high praise for South African attacker Lyle Foster, who was relegated with Burnley from England's top flight on Saturday.
Burnley manager Vincent Kompany has opened up on the striker's battle with his mental wellbeing this season.
The former Orlando Pirates forward struggled with mental health-related issues late last year, and was placed under the care of specialists tasked with giving him the support and care he needed to help him get back to full health.
He made a return to action for the Clarets in December, but it was later revealed that the 23-year-old's issues caused him to miss out on the chance to join Bafana Bafana at the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations earlier this year.
Foster has, however, managed to garner 23 league appearances this season, during which he accumulated five goals and three assists, although that has unfortunately not helped his team avoid relegation, which was confirmed on Saturday.
On the weekend, Kompany lauded the attacker for the way he decided to deal with his situation, adding that he has helped people to better understand the way to approach difficulties associated with mental health.
"I think Lyle did something very powerful by actually speaking up about it himself and allowing us to speak about it," the Belgian tactician said during an interview for the Premier League.
"How he processed his own situation was very, very mature for a young individual in the end. And I think we've all learned through experiencing this with him.
"The difficulty with football, obviously, so often it's the problem and, as well, it's the solution.
"These players will be confronted with different states of mind because of the pressure of the job, because of just the pressure of being a footballer, and what this means sometimes it's not even towards the fans. It could be your family, it could be your country, it could be your background, it could be social media.
"So the stress of the job and the demand of performance as well, competition, but at the same time, it's what they love doing.
"To create this environment where these players actually see footballers, the happy place, the solution and take them away from what they see as a dark place, it's been a learning curve this year, and Lyle has been massive in helping us to understand how to best support players that are facing the situation."