Anna Oscarsson, 24, plays outer back in Eskilstuna, has five A-national matches and over 60 youth national matches. In 2014, when she was 16 years old, she moved away from home and left Gotland for Gothenburg. She was a high achiever in her sports and school.

- It was too much. I've always had very high demands on myself. I have wanted to perform in whatever I do. I wanted the highest grades in school. I wanted to perform optimally on the football field. At the same time, I had quite recently moved away from family and security, and would manage myself.

She had not previously encountered mental illness in that way.

- I was pretty unprepared. I was tired all the time. From nowhere I could get dizzy and feel dizzy. On some occasions when the anxiety crept in, I could find it difficult to breathe. From the beginning, I thought it was physical.

Felt a shame

She became good at hiding.

- I wasn't ready to talk about how I felt, that I was so stressed, and felt bad. I felt ashamed that I had such good conditions for feeling good, and yet I did not.

In 2018, Anna Oscarsson's mental health deteriorated. She realized that she needed to open up.

- I had a feeling that I was inadequate.

She played in damallsvenskan, was seen as a talent, and made her debut in the national team. Mentally she was at the bottom, but still managed to achieve her best season. She was selected for Sweden under Peter Gerhardsson's leadership.

- Things happened in private too, which we all go through at some point in our lives. But since I had not talked about my anxiety before, I did not have the tools to deal with the hardships I encountered in private life.

Anna Oscarsson is today ambassador for the association Suicide zero. Together with the players' union, they build an action plan with tools for the clubs, which should be a base for leaders, to help players who in the future suffer from mental ill health.

Anna Oscarsson debuts for her new club Eskilstuna United when they face Örebro in the ladies' Swedish premiere on Saturday.