adminFears are growing that ex-England footballer Paul Gascoigne is losing his long-running battle with alcohol after he was seen clutching a bottle of gin and being led from his home by police.
Shocking pictures show the former player – once the country’s most gifted midfielder- slumped, head in hands, outside his penthouse apartment in Sandbanks, Dorset, looking much older than his 47 years.
He is reportedly in the process of being evicted from the £3million rented home after neighbours complained about noise levels.
Gascoigne – known to fans as Gazza – was taken away from the apartment yesterday afternoon and driven to Poole Hospital after paramedics and police were called.
The star’s daughter, Bianca, later took to Twitter after being inundated with messages of support from well-wishers.
One fan told her: “Never will forget the joy of watching your Dad play. Praying he keeps fighting”. Another wrote: “Your dad’s an absolute legend hope he gets better soon!”
After retweeting some of the messages, Bianca, 27, wrote: “Thank you for your kind words.”
QPR manager Harry Redknapp, who also lives in Sandbanks, offered Gascoigne the chance to work alongside him in football as he battles alcohol addiction.
He said: “I saw him about a month ago and said, ‘I’ll pick you up in the mornings, Gazza, come training with me and do a bit of work with the kids’. I’d love it if he could do that. It’s an open invitation”.
“He’s a great lad and it’s sad to see what’s happened to him and how he’s looking at the moment.”
In a TV documentary shown last September, Gascoigne described the pain of fearing he might start drinking again, despite knowing it could kill him.
The ITV show Being Paul Gascoigne revealed he was addicted to sweets and spent £1,000 a year on anti-wrinkle jabs to counteract the ravages of drinking.
He said: ‘I just remember one bit after the third day of being in hospital when he (the doctor) said “I don’t think this guy is going to make it” and I sort of put my head up a little bit and I was like, tubes in my arms and an oxygen tank injecting round my heart and lungs and that.”
He added: “I just come forward and I went ‘I don’t want to die, I need to water the plants’ and that was it and then I woke up two weeks later.
“With me now, if I did have a drink and relapse, it’s like becoming tipsy and merry is OK for a couple of days but like the next mouthful I’m so down, I’m so depressed, I cry.
“I do all that because I know inside I’m hurting myself again. I know where I’m heading – a wooden box. Or I’m back in treatment or hospital. Or getting sectioned.”
Gascoigne said he had been “lucky twice” after almost dying from drink, saying: “I hope I don’t die through it.
“Because I won’t get any sympathy… because, well, “he was warned”. At least I know if I did pass away through it I wouldn’t be in this pain all the time.
‘The pain’s like, I know probably in the future I am going to drink again. I know in a year’s time I am going to have f****** hassle again and, you know, family worrying and Sheryl (his ex-wife) worried, the kids worried, nephews worried, friends are worried.’
“I just think sometimes, just think f****** hell. Just go away i.e. drink or me go away – and that means a wooden box and six nails… and I don’t know why, I just don’t know why I f****** pick up the drink.”
A friend of Gascoigne’s told the Daily Mirror: “It is very sad. But the reality is Paul has been drinking for the past few weeks and once that happens things will only end one way.
“His landlord had given him 10 days to get out of the flat and it was weighing on his mind. Obviously things became too much for him in the past couple of days and he has turned back to the bottle”.
Gascoigne was recently seen in public at a WH Smith store, where fans said he appeared “unsteady on his feet”.
It had been claimed that Gascoigne was set to make his return to football after a journey for cigarettes led him to meet taxi driver and Abbey FC manager Chris Foster – who convinced the former England international to sign for the Hayward Sunday League side.
The 47-year-old enjoyed a memorable professional career which saw him represent the likes of Newcastle, Tottenham, Lazio and Rangers, whilst also becoming a firm favourite among many England supporters.
Gascoigne, who has been plagued by alcoholism and drug addiction, last played professional football a decade ago when he made five appearances for then-League Two side Boston United.
Daren Hills, secretary of the Bournemouth Football Association, confirmed that his registration has been received. A spokesman for Gascoigne declined to comment on the incident outside his home.
Gascoigne’s battle with alcohol has been well documented. At a charity event in February of last year, Gazza appeared on stage and was reportedly shaking and crying after days of heavy drinking.Some of the stars of the game, including Gary Lineker and Liverpool’s Steven Gerrard, shared the cost to have him sent to the £7,500-a-week Cottonwood Clinic in Arizona.
It was while he was there that Gazza was close to death as the treatment clinic tried to detox him but when they couldn’t they instead rushed him to hospital.
Having managed to survive that scare, the former Lazio star was reportedly soon seen drinking once again. The latest incident is a marked departure from his appearance in Bournemouth just weeks ago, when Gazza appeared in rude health.
The former Newcastle and Spurs player, who famously lit up the 1990 World Cup in Italy, balanced a football on his head as he relaxed with friends on July 20.
He looked happy and in good shape as he sipped coffee and played a harmonica, before a game of mini golf, which he won. — Dailymail
Bongani Ndlovu
Online Reporter