Jack Grealish's Rehabilitation Journey Amid Controversy
Jack Grealish is spending his spring in the treatment room, not on the pitch, and now he finds himself in the headlines for all the wrong reasons.
Images published by The Sun showed the Everton loanee asleep in a chair at a rooftop bar in Manchester, reportedly the ‘Stories’ venue, after an afternoon out with friends. The 30-year-old, still recovering from major foot surgery, was quickly pushed into the glare of social media judgment.
One of the first to jump to his defence was someone who knows him well. Former Aston Villa teammate Gabriel Agbonlahor used his talkSPORT platform to call out those who took and shared the pictures.
“My first thoughts were: I've been in that situation,” Agbonlahor said, before turning his fire on the people behind the camera. “It just shows the sort of people that are out there, that are taking pictures and what they're doing with the pictures. It happened to me quite a few times and you're just like: ‘Come on. You've got nothing better to do with your life’ – taking pictures and this and that.”
The images landed at a delicate moment in Grealish’s career. His season effectively ended in February when he underwent surgery on a stress fracture, an injury serious enough to rule him out of England’s upcoming World Cup campaign. For a player trying to claw his way back into Gareth Southgate’s thoughts after missing out on the Euro 2024 squad, the timing could hardly be worse.
Agbonlahor, though, painted a very different picture of Grealish away from the paparazzi snapshots. He insisted the winger has treated his rehabilitation with the same intensity he once reserved for terrorising full-backs.
“Listen, he's been through a lot. He's been through a season-ending injury. He's doing his rehab,” Agbonlahor said. “I've seen what he's been doing in his rehab. He's working hard to get back. I think he's back available to train in July – he said to me the other day.
“Listen, he won't be happy that those pictures have come out, but I'm sure when he's at training, when he's there doing his rehab, he's doing everything right. But it just sums up this world we live in now – people want to take pictures and send them off.”
Ally McCoist echoed that frustration. The Rangers legend widened the lens, blaming the culture that allows every night out to become public property.
“It might just be the worst invention on the planet – the camera phone,” McCoist said. “I'm telling you right now, scandalous. For the boys, I'm thinking of boys now. That's not a good look. Of course, it's not a good look, let's not kid ourselves on. But at the same time, what happened to a bit of privacy?”
For Grealish, the off-field storm only adds noise to an already complicated season. After a stuttering spell at Manchester City following his £100 million move from Villa in 2021, his loan switch to Everton – and life at Hill Dickinson Stadium – had finally given him some rhythm again. Two goals and six assists for the Toffees this term hinted at a player rediscovering his edge before the injury struck in January and ripped up his plans.
The stress fracture didn’t just halt his club momentum. It shut the door on any late dash back into the England squad and left his long-term future at City hanging in the air. His loan deal ends this summer. His next move, on or off the pitch, is still undecided.
For now, the equation is brutally simple: get fit, get back, and let the football speak louder than the photographs. All eyes are on that July return to training, when the rehab ends and the real fight for his career’s next chapter begins.
