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Nicklas Helenius

bickster

By bickster
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AaB-Aalborg
AaB-Aalborg

Todays media reports, that Villa do not wish Helenius to return, so his agent is trying to find out, if Villa will release him or what happens next.   Despite having scored a couple of goals for AaB

OutByEaster?
OutByEaster?

No pressure son.

AaB-Aalborg
AaB-Aalborg

He looked better yesterday, and actually should have been noted down for two goals, as he scored a header already in 1st half. Unfortunately the ref. saw something, no one else saw and gave Rio Ave a

The_Steve Grand Master

The_Steve

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Jeez, poor Nicklas. Hope he's on the road to recovery.

 

Nicklas Helenius has opened his heart on his year from hell at Aston Villa revealing that an illness left him fearing death and addicted to sleeping pills.

During his first 12 months in England, Helenius contracted a bacterial infection which was so severe that the Danish striker was scared he had cancer.

 

Until now the Danish striker’s lack of match action - he only played 147 minutes for Paul Lambert’s claret and blues - had been shaded in mystery.

But in an interview back home Helenius has revealed that his medical condition left him in agony and prompted a deep depression and fears of death.

 

It got to the stage where the 23-year-old returned to former club Aalborg on a season-loan in the summer because he needed to feel safe in his native Denmark.

 

At the height on the illness Helenius lost eight kilograms very quickly and was confined to the toilet.

 

“It ruined me physically because the bacteria couldn’t get out and I couldn’t get the vitamins needed,” explained Helenius.

“I thought I had a very serious disease or even cancer.

 

“I had very bad thoughts and was afraid of dying and those thoughts of dying were with me all the time.

“I was crying for help. I had to get through this and that’s why I went back to Aalborg to geel comfortable in Denmark.”

 

To help him sleep Helenius started taking pills and became reliant on them for around six weeks.

 

“I was addicted to them,” he add. “I was almost like a drug addict, but there pills are not good for your body.”

Helenius stopped taking the pils when he read a book by Danish handball player Lars Christiansen and sought psychological help.

 

He became a father to twins in August and is striving to kickstart his career in the Danish Superliga.

 

Helenius is set to return to Villa for the final year of his contract next summer.

 

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Jay.P.A Rookie

Jay.P.A

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I've translated this from that website through google translate for anyone that wants to read it:

 

Thoughts of death was there all the time and I shouted for help. I just had to get through this in one way or another. That I luckily came to find peace of mind again. Nicklas Helenius on a dark chapter in his sports.

He is labeled as one of the Danish talents that after having broken the Super League, still did not have the footballing qualities and the necessary cynicism to cope with one of Europe's top leagues.

Such a simplification of Nicklas Helenius' failed stay at Aston Villa does not do any justice.

Why, the attacker after just one year in Birmingham, West Midlands, is now back in Aalborg and the premiership, require fuller answer if you want to understand some of the dark sides, topfodbolden also to offer. The answer, 23-year-old Helenius gives in an interview with tv3sport.dk, where he talks about the time the tradition-rich Premier League club.

- The feeling that I could manage to stand on their own feet, I have always had, but it was a damn hard time, as I learned much from, say Helenius initially about his stay at Aston Villa.

Football-wise came the attacker otherwise fine from the country. At Aston Villa's training camp in Germany in July 2013, he scored in the 1-1 matches are against Rodinhausen and Bochum, and the first discussions about a possible Villa-scoop was led around the football Denmark and football England.

Helenius was as close to the starting lineup for the first Premier League rounds. He got indhop in three of the first nine games, but after the sixth round clash against Manchester City on 28 September as Helenius so from the bench, found a cambylobactor-like bacterium way to the player's body.

- There followed four or five days where I almost could not move because of pain. I simply had so hurt, and then I made nothing more than to be on the drum all day. I lost eight kilograms quickly. The bacterial infection sat back and took a very long time then.

That there was an infection, which did not require a complicated treatment, there should be a long time before Helenius found out.

- I got a little better in the following days and joined the national team (for the games against Malta and Italy in October 2013 ed.), But my stomach was still not working. Without going into detail, so it is not normal when I went to the toilet, and so it went on for a long time.

- It destroyed me physically that the bacterium was not properly cleaned out immediately for the vitamins I need, could not hold the body.

Thought it was cancer or a serious neurological disease

The uncertainty about what was wrong, went Helenius on. Not just as irritation, but as something much more serious.

- I did not know my body as well, and I did not know what after-effects such bacteria can bring. I had no idea what it was. I thought I was hit by a terrible neurological disease or serious cancer. It was **** hard and it knocked me backwards.

To deliver a driving range in a time where it is feared to be suffering from a life-threatening illness, suffering physically and mentally, and where even miss their network from Denmark, while it is difficult to find their feet in a new country and a new culture, seems unnatural. It was also in Helenius' case.

- It all got worse. In January, I was stressed, and the depression hit me. I could not calm the nerves, and physically simply made it hurt so much when I moved on a football field. It felt like I had torn a lot of ligaments above.

I was just like an addict

Fear of dying, and insomnia were some of the problems Helenius struggled in his Aston Villa time. Sleep problems hit him the first time in November when it was about one night a week, he did not close an eye. Since sleep problems were more pronounced. Existence was not, therefore easier for the north country boy.

- I started taking sleeping pills, and them I was addicted to. I was just like a drug addict, and for a time I took them every night for six weeks. It was bullshit, because such pills are filled with filth and dirt, and they only did my physical pain worse.

The fear of being hit by a life-threatening illness relax Helenius of, about five months after he had taken the first thoughts about what was wrong with him. From here began the progress quietly come.

- In February, I scanned the brain, and it was here that I found out I was nothing wrong seriously.

The message was obviously a relief for Helenius, but he still had physical pain in the wake of the infection. That he February 11 for the ninth time in the last 10 league matches were found worthy of a place on the Villa bench and not wreck the match squad seems to tell the story of a young man who has staked very hard to impress his employer despite crazy hard conditions.

- In March, I could not. I had to say from the consequences of the infection gave me great pain. I just was not able to work out longer. So I got 10 days off where I went to Denmark. I was hit by a small hamstring when I returned to Villa, but otherwise it was better. It was only in the last few weeks of my time in England, I really said to myself, 'now it's the right path with pain.'

Lars Christiansen a great inspiration

Pill abuse came also tracks in England. It was otherwise become so pronounced that the pills no longer work optimally on Helenius. He made just four five hours sleep when he took them. The first step away from the pills were taken when the beleaguered attack in early February - before the brain scan - read an autobiography from a Danish handball legend.

- I read Lars Christiansen's book (If truth be told, ed.). The Lars says in his book, reminiscent in many ways of what I saw. So I immediately got in touch Bjarne Lellek, the psychologist Lars used.

The first gave Lellek Helenius told immediately dropping pills. The player obeyed orders and went cold turkey.

- The nights the first two weeks were terrible, but I had been told they would be. I really had withdrawal symptoms, shaking extremely much. But in doubt, I am not. It was the right thing to do.

Helenius describes Lellek as a great help in the fight to drop the pills and get up mentally. Roses awards he to his agent, Mads Bach Lund, but the greatest praise receives her boyfriend Line.

- She was with me in a nightmare period. I always had the feeling that she was there for me, and I had not had it, I had not done it. I had simply not telling Helenius, adding:

- When depression gets bad thoughts about themselves. I was afraid to die, and thoughts of death was there all the time and I shouted for help. I just had to get through this in one way or another, and I luckily came to find peace of mind again.

Thrives in confidence

Tryg is Helenius in Aalborg and Aalborg, who wrote a one-year lease with him before the season. He knows there are expectations for him in the North Jutland, but in mental improvement and in good physical condition am the man with the glorious kick technique to achieve them.

- I hope I'll be able to live up to the level that I showed last time I was in Aalborg. I know that the staff around me also believe in it and it is a comfort that I enjoy. Things will succeed, because I work very hard. The talent I still have, so I'm gonna hit top form again, assures Helenius.

He accepts that it has not happened from day one since his return to Nordjyske Arena.

- I find myself, and it took longer to get up for grabs after the long period of illness than I expected. But it goes the right way, and I feel stronger than long. I have more energy, my weight is close to the ideal, and I am totally painless.

That many have clocked almost two meters tall Helenius as a flop that could not survive abroad, he focuses not on.

I can not think that there are people who say some nasty things. How is it in this world. I just know I'm on the right track and I is the place I want to be in my career at this time.

Sleepless nights are not frightened anymore - it makes abroad nor

Helenius was as late as August, the father of a set of twins. He seems like a young man who is hard to beat off course.

- There may still be a night where I did not have slept so much, but when a sleepless night hits, I'm much more calm about it now. It may take up to a month between the sleepless nights.

- So, yes; life has become easier. I feel good today. I am the father of two children, and I can look at my girlfriend, she has become happier, it also affected her when I was uncomfortable.

In the pursuit of the good life has Helenius four specific objectives he wants to live up to.

- First, I need to be a good father for my children, and secondly, I would be the Nicklas, people knew before I went to England and was struck by illness, anxiety and depression.

- My third goal is that I will use everything I have been through to become a better football player mentally, and my fourth and final goal is that I just want to enjoy life. Every morning I would say to myself, 'it's a good day ahead.

A final question to the man with the preliminary three season matches in the Super League will be whether he was for Aston Villa fresh in the mind will seek abroad again.

- One should not miss. I have learned from what I have been through and comes opportunity, I will have the courage to take off again. Let me stress that the only plan right now is that I have to back in top form. What happens later on, we have to wait and see, ending Helenius.

When the lease expires with AaB, Helenius has basically one year left on the contract with Aston Villa.

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rodders0223 Grand Master

rodders0223

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This really explains a lot. I actually put him down as my "most exciting signing" of the summer of '13. Nice to see I was just wrong, instead of totally, slip-my-arms-into-a-straitjacket-please raving barking bananas wrong.

 

Me too.

For the £1.2m I thought we were getting an absolute bargain. A good old fashioned target man type striker with a supreme touch and all round game, maybe wouldn't score many to begin with but would fit in well.

 I have no idea what I was basing that on, but it was what was in my head.

 

 

:(

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DCJonah Grand Master

DCJonah

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No way, we all know he never played because Lambert is a word removed?

amirite? :rolleyes:

I never read that. I only ever read that it was agreed plan by helenius and Lambert that he wouldn't play for a year. Quite clearly that's rubbish.

Hopefully he gets himself better and returns for another chance.

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dnmacf Newbie

dnmacf

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Always found it odd he didn't get more game time considering he looked decent in pre season and scored in his only appearance. Hope he's well on the road to recovery and if the ambition is still there perhaps he can give it a go in the Premier League again eventually.

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heid3ster Newbie

heid3ster

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Poor Nicklas, it sounds like he had a very bad year. I always thought that he looked very promising and was frustrated that he didn't get a chance last season, so this explains a lot.

 

Also might explain why the number 9 shirt wasn't given away this season? I'd love to see him get back on his feet this season during his loan and return stronger next season. Fingers crossed.

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