'Mentally fatigued': Mason Holgate on what went wrong at West Brom and why he turned back on English football

The 29-year-old former Everton man was well thought of among the Albion fanbase - owing to his first loan spell at the club during the 2018/19 season when he helped the Baggies reach the Championship play-offs.

He returned late last summer on loan from Everton - and featured 27 times, scoring one goal.

However, his second spell didn't go as well as expected. Holgate and Albion slid down the table after Carlos Corberan's departure - and the season ended with them finishing well outside the top six.

Holgate departed in the summer and with his contract expiring at Everton - he has moved on to pastures new abroad, signing for Qatari club Al Ghararfa.

The former Baggies defender has opened up on his time in England - and explained why he feels his loan spells, including his final one with Albion, did not go absolutely to plan.

Speaking to talkSPORT, he said: "Going through the last few years at Everton, I had a bit of a difficult time going on loans and stuff and not really feeling at home anywhere,.

“When you're in England, that comes with a lot of pressure.

“I was going on loan to Championship clubs and off the back of not really having pre-seasons at Everton and in and around with the younger set up and then going straight into games in the Championship, not starting off in a great way as I'd thought.

“I just felt a little bit, I'd call it probably a little bit fatigued mentally, just a bit exhausted with it, because I just felt like I was being judged fair enough, as rightly as you should.

“I was being judged off of a different expectation, I felt like, to everybody else who was playing.

“For example, obviously, I'm a defender - if we get beat, I felt like everybody thought it was my fault all the time.

“I think looking back on it now, that was definitely a privilege and something that I miss 100 per cent with the fans being so passionate in England and stuff like that.

“At the time, it just felt like after like two, three years of that happening, it just felt like I kind of needed to reset from that."

The Jamaica international has also explained how life has changed for him in Qatar.

Having spent all his career in England - he is loving life in Qatar with his side sitting top of the table having lost just once all season.

The former Baggie added: “I think that coming here and being able to reset that has been huge for me.

“It's probably given me the confidence I need to be, to say I know I am good enough to be at the level that I were expected to be at.

“In England, everything's live and breathe football. So I might play on a Saturday, we get beat, don't cover myself in glory, and then it's not till the next Saturday, if I'm still on the team, that I can put that right.

“Whereas here, it's a little bit more relaxed in terms of you go, you play and it's kind of easier to reset because you're not walking the streets and everybody's coming up to you talking about it or it's not on such a scale as what England is where it's just everything's so microscoped, your friends are talking to you about it, your family's talking to you about it."