The players need to ‘drive PFA NI forward, says Stephen Lowry as Coleraine midfielder opens up on the challenges Irish League players face both on and off the pitch

The PFA NI was officially launched last week to provide a voice for players and aims to lead the way in contractual advice, legal support, personal development, amongst other key objectives.

Lowry, who is a committee member of PFA NI, hopes the organisation will help those involved in the game to be happy both on and off the pitch.

"There are loads of challenges nowadays for players as it's like any job at the end of the day," he said.

"It's like asking someone how they're doing in their job and what they feel are the challenges such as the cost of living, social media, there's pressure on players from both the inside and outside, what do you do after football, so there's plenty of different aspects within the PFA NI.

"I'm only probably learning as well, so I think from our point of view, we are a well rounded service but at the same time, one that is representative of the members and that's probably the key thing for us.

"We want to talk to the players and find out what their needs are and as the more we do that in the summer, the more services we can offer.

"It's about the players and them driving us forward.

"We've got to make sure preventable measures are put in place rather than action being taken at crisis point.

"From our side, early prevention work, albeit it's more education training, there's services we can offer for players to be part of the union as their rights and voice.

"The Jerry Thompson tragedy maybe woke us up more as players in Northern Ireland to do more prevention work."

With players subjected to abuse from the terraces and on social media, Lowry remarked that local footballers are simply carrying out a job and that they have the same financial and mental health issues as everyone else.

"Footballers in the Irish League are paid for doing a job," he added.

"They all have rights but the players have nobody to represent them at the end of the day.

"I think sport in general can make athletes have a perfect life, but the players in the Irish League aren't earning millions of pounds.

"They still have struggles and challenges despite being very privileged to play football and get paid for it.

"There's a fine balance there but I think the main thing is that there's a support mechanism there in the background for players.

"We don't want to talk about social media too much but we want the players to have enough education to deal with it themselves and that's the most important thing.

"It is about making them better informed, making better decisions and they are aware of the consequences of their actions.

"There's certain players who might not have that knowledge or education, so we want them to have it.

"Players know what they sign up for when they sign a contract with a club.

"People then watch and can criticise, but at the same time, the players are at their place of work and it can affect you.

"Players have to deal with that and we want to make sure that if they are struggling, they have the right support after."