Jack Grealish: From Treatment Room to Rooftop Bar Controversy
Jack Grealish is spending his spring in the treatment room, not on the pitch – and now in the headlines for all the wrong reasons.
Photos 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 a serious foot injury, was quickly thrust back into the glare he thought he’d briefly escaped.
One former teammate was having none of it.
Agbonlahor steps in
Speaking on talkSPORT, Gabriel Agbonlahor leapt to Grealish’s defence and turned his fire on those who took and shared the images.
“My first thoughts were: I've been in that situation,” he said. “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 pictures landed at a delicate moment in Grealish’s career. He has been sidelined since February after surgery on a stress fracture, a season-ending injury that has already cost him a place at the World Cup with England. While the snapshots painted an unflattering still image, Agbonlahor insisted the reality of Grealish’s day-to-day is very different.
“Listen, he's been through a lot. He's been through a season-ending injury. He's doing his rehab,” Agbonlahor continued. “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.”
A season cut short
The timing makes it sting even more. After a turbulent spell at Manchester City following his £100 million move from Aston Villa in 2021, Grealish had finally started to look like himself again on loan at Everton, at Hill Dickinson Stadium.
He had chipped in with two goals and six assists this season, rediscovering rhythm and confidence, before the injury struck in January and ripped the momentum away. The stress fracture surgery ended his campaign and shut down any late push for an England recall after Gareth Southgate left him out of the Euro 2024 squad.
Instead of building a case on the pitch, he has spent months rebuilding his foot and his fitness.
The camera phone era
Ally McCoist echoed Agbonlahor’s frustration, widening the lens from one player to the modern game’s unforgiving spotlight.
“It might just be the worst invention on the planet – the camera phone,” the Rangers legend 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?”
That’s the crux of it. A player, injured and months from returning, dozes off in a chair. Within hours, it’s national debate material. Optics versus reality. Public image versus private life.
What comes next
Strip away the noise and Grealish’s situation is brutally simple. His loan at Everton is ticking towards its end. His future at Manchester City remains uncertain. His body is still catching up after major surgery.
For now, everything is pinned to one target: a July return to training. If the rehab continues on schedule, he will walk back onto the grass with a point to prove, his England hopes dented but not dead and his club future hanging in the balance.
When that moment comes, the pictures that matter won’t be taken in a rooftop bar. They’ll be from the touchline, charting whether he can turn a season wrecked by injury into the start of a new chapter.
