Oscar Allen has revealed he struggled with the mental toll of the fallout surrounding his meeting with Sam Mitchell, with the West Coast co-captain saying he had the feeling that “everyone hated me”.

In his first public comments since stepping away from the Eagles for a break late last month, Allen clarified that his catch-up with the Hawthorn coach had been a dinner in the privacy of his home and said he had blanked out his social media accounts to avoid the fury of some fans.

Allen returned to West Coast’s line-up for last week’s clash against the Hawks after missing the Eagles’ most recent home clash against Essendon to take a break from the club.

As he prepares for his first game at Optus Stadium since news of his meeting with Mitchell emerged, the 26-year-old said he was in a better place mentally to handle his on-field and off-field challenges in the wake of the considerable fallout.

“It was a pretty difficult month. I decided, with the club, to step away a couple of weeks ago – I just wasn’t handling it all, mentally, whatsoever,” Allen said on Mix94.5.

“I’m going a lot better now. It definitely was really tough, particularly when I love West Coast, I love the club, I love playing footy. I wasn’t able to do any of that well.

“Because of that, your identity as a footballer and a person kind of get merged, because playing footy is something I’ve loved to do since I was a kid, and my job was going poorly.

“Publicly, everyone hated me… and my performance was poor. There was a combination of things.

“It was tough, but I’ve had a really good support network around me.”

Allen said turning his back on social media was pivotal in helping him move past a difficult period.

“One thing for anyone who is struggling with stuff: Get off social media. That’s probably the first bit of advice,” he said.

“I’ve deleted all of that. It’s just not good to look at… it’s been a good decision to get away from it, because if I don’t know you well enough to have a coffee with you, then I probably shouldn’t really care what you’re thinking about me.”

Allen’s catch-up with Mitchell caught the attention of the football world, with the meeting coming off the back of the Hawthorn coach’s success in poaching Tom Barrass from West Coast last year.

The soon-to-be out-of-contract Eagle said he had chatted with Mitchell - his former assistant coach at the club in 2018 - behind closed doors about a range of issues.

“I had dinner with Sam, privately, at my house. Nothing else was involved and no one else was there,” Allen said.

“It was just two guys having a chat. We talked about a lot of things. We were just having a conversation about where I’m at, how I’ve been going this year, and a combination of things.

“He was obviously a premiership captain for Hawthorn, so I was trying to talk about when Hawthorn won in 2008 and then had a couple of tough years (afterwards) - how they helped respond to that.”

Allen said he understood the frustration of fans, but admitted he “didn’t think it’d be as big of a story” as it turned out to be.

Ahead of his 100th game for the club, Allen played down the much-publicised meeting between Eagles players and officials late last month in the wake of the club’s winless start, saying it had been productive and was standard practice.

“We had a meeting with senior players, senior coach, John Worsfold who’s head of football, Gavin Bell who’s the GM, and the CEO,” he said.

“We had a conversation about how we can get better as players, and how the club can get better at supporting players.

“I reckon every single company in the world has had a million of these meetings.”