John Stones has spoken candidly about the emotional strain of a season hampered by repeated fitness setbacks. The Manchester City centre back admitted that last term\u2019s interruptions were so severe he briefly entertained the idea of ending his playing career.<\/p>\n
\u201cLast season was tough for me, to the point where I thought about stopping,\u201d Stones told BBC Radio 5 Live. Across the campaign he missed a run of four consecutive games and was repeatedly sent back to the sidelines by fresh problems. The 31-year-old said those interruptions left him frustrated after long periods of strict preparation and professionalism.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t want to do it. I had had enough of being so professional and trying to do everything right in my power, to then keep breaking down and not having the answers. It was a very difficult place to be in.\u201d Stones has endured a long catalogue of absences since his breakthrough with Everton in 2012, missing 137 matches across all competitions with those absences spread over 22 separate issues.<\/p>\n
Statistically, Stones has not returned to the levels he reached in his first season at City. Not since 2016\u201317 has he reached 2,000 Premier League minutes in a single campaign; that 2016\u201317 season produced 2,014 minutes and remains the year in which he made his most Premier League appearances for the club, 27. In the current 2025\u201326 season he has recorded 264 minutes to date.<\/p>\n
Stones spoke about the mental challenge of repeated setbacks and the difficulty of finding explanations when a player believes he has done everything right. \u201cThere comes a point where you don\u2019t know why it happens and it is even harder when you put in so much effort, or you are ultra professional, to be able to play and be available,\u201d he added. \u201cWhen that time comes and something happens, it would be easier to say, \u2018Well I didn\u2019t do X, Y and Z, that\u2019s why,\u2019 but when you do it, it\u2019s then mentally challenging. Hopefully I don\u2019t go back to that place.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reflecting on his motivation, Stones made clear he intends to continue fighting. \u201cMy emotions were high. I wasn\u2019t thinking straight. I don\u2019t think deep down I would have ever done it [retired].<\/p>\n
\u201cI said years ago when City wanted me to have a new challenge, I said, \u2018I am going to fight.\u2019 That\u2019s all I have known since I was a kid. Why should I stop that now? So yes, there is that fight in me and that winning mentality that doesn\u2019t want to stop.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
John Stones reveals he considered retirement after repeated injuries; long absences and low minutes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3633,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[238,969],"tags":[1100,1123],"class_list":["post-3634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-manchester-city","category-premier-league","tag-defence","tag-john-stones"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3634"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3634\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}