Everton midfielder Dele Alli says being called lazy by former boss Jose Mourinho was tough for him.

Alli, who was at Tottenham at the time, was branded as having a poor attitude by the Portuguese coach.

Mourinho had stated to Ali: “I understood already that you are a f*****g lazy guy in training" in front of other players.

During an interview with Gary Neville for The Overlap, Alli spoke about his addiction issues and personal traumas over the past few years.

“I'm glad you asked me about that [Jose Mourinho calling me lazy], so that lazy comment people all love to bring that up, that interview obviously that was on Amazon," Dele told Neville.

"He called me lazy – that was the day after recovery day.

"A week later, he apologized to me for calling me lazy because he'd seen me actually train and play. But that wasn't in the documentary, and no one spoke up about that because it was only me and him.

“In the team meeting, he called me lazy but then one on one, I think it was on the pitch he apologized for it. And I didn't think anything of it at the time because I know myself – I'm not lazy.

“Yeah, that's what I mean, what you see sometimes isn't the way it really is. I think, especially now with social media and all these things, we can really portray something that isn't real. After that, I think people definitely tried to use that, for some other decisions.

“I think other coaches maybe, for other reasons why I weren't playing, they stuck to that – lazy one – because it was kind of an easy, easy one to use. And the problem was probably more than that, I think."