The psychologist that Messi never visited

Sports psychologists are becoming increasingly common at the top level of football. It's a role that has become much more normalised at big clubs than before.

Lionel Messi's admission that he should have used one but didn't has put them back in the spotlight.

"I should have gone to the psychologist, but I never went," Messi told Jordi Evole. "Why? I don't know. It's hard for me to take that step, even though I know I need it.

"Antonela [his wife] has insisted a lot of times that I should go, but I'm someone who keeps everything to myself. I don't share things. I know it would do me good, but I haven't gone."

That professional that Messi perhaps should have visited is Imma Puig, Barcelona's psychologist for 15 seasons. She was one of the people who worked closely with Andres Iniesta when he was suffering with his own difficulties, which he gave light to at a later date, hoping to help remove any stigma that still exists.

"Everyone believes that to suffer from depression you have to have a lot of problems," Puig herself has said. "But it's not true, people can feel bad despite having everything that others want."

Just as Iniesta wanted to normalise the use of psychologists, Puig is also keen for that to happen.

"Footballers have exactly the same problems as anyone else, but the difference is they work in a shop window," she said. "Everyone can criticise them, knows what they earn, can comment on their private lives.

"Sometimes I wonder what would happen if the lives of politicians or businessmen were as exposed as those of footballers. It's not easy. They have to live with the envy of the world."

Other elite professionals, Luis Enrique for example, have never hidden the roles of psychologists.

There is a belief in the field that things have moved on from where they were 30 years ago, but as Pablo del Rio said, "the media have a responsibility" when it comes to reporting on players' use of psychologists and that "those who need them should use them".