A 22-year-old Australian soccer player says he's stepping away from the sport because of the online abuse he has suffered during his playing career. Josh Hope was a midfielder for Melbourne Victory of Australia's top flight, a role he'd had for the last four years. He was released from Melbourne at the end of last season and announced on Instagram that he was going to "call it in, for now" with regards to his career rather than move to another club in the A-League.
He cited the anxiety he developed as a result of the online abuse as his main reason:
The former Victory player once served as captain of the Australia under-17s side and was also a member of the U20 team. A quick glance at the original Instagram post shows an outpouring of support from many in the community for his decision -- one he hopes will make him return to the game "stronger" than before.
"The anxiety that comes with this ... is crazy, I never thought it would get to the point it did," he wrote. "I kept pretty quiet about it for a long time but I started to see it creep into my day to day life. And at the end of the day it made me not enjoy my football.. at all."