‘I used to live day to day with drinking, now I have to live day to day without it’
FORMER CITY AND ENGLAND STAR KENNY SANSOM ON HOW HE’S WINNING HIS FIGHT WITH THE TWIN DEMONS OF BOOZE AND GAMBLING
There were loads of low points... I’m trying to kill two addictions. Whatever I am doing at the minute, it is working. Kenny Sansom
FORMER Coventry City star and England international Kenny Sansom is working to turn his life around.
The ex-player is now trying to clean up his act and hasn’t had a drink in five weeks.
The troubled 58-yearold reached rock bottom in December when his demons looked to have beaten him, and he was left homeless, seeking out his next drink.
A year earlier, he was in the headlines after being pictured sleeping rough with a bottle in a park in Bromley and talking about how he was suicidal.
But Sansom is now looking to turn around his life, while working for Crystal Palace as a club ambassador.
The Mirror reports that when Sansom arrived for Saturday afternoon’s game between Palace and Sunderland he looked much better than in previous weeks. Having made 86 appearances for England, Kenny was idolised during a glittering career spent with the likes of Crystal Palace, Arsenal, Everton, Queens Park Rangers and Newcastle United. But after his playing days ended, drinking and gambling became his way of passing the hours that would have been spent training. “I lived day-today with drinking, now I have to live dayto-day without it,” he says. “When you first finish your career you feel relieved, because you think you don’t have to get up for training any more. “Then my drinking got stronger and affected my life. I don’t know why it started to get stronger, maybe it was because I wasn’t playing football.
“There were loads of low points, lots of things going wrong and I was doing the wrong things – gambling and drinking in public. They were massive addictions.
“They used to call it an illness, I never called it an illness, but I definitely know they’re addictive – I would encourage teenagers to stay away from both.”
When his drinking was at its heaviest he would knock back eight or nine bottles of wine a day and could blow whatever money he had on a fruit machine.
While beating any addiction isn’t easy, Kenny feels confident he can stay sober. “I don’t want to gamble again, I don’t want to drink again,” he says. “I’m trying to kill two addictions. Whatever I am doing at the minute, it is working.” For the last five weeks Kenny has been living in Exeter with a friend and fellow recovering alcoholic who he met in rehab. This has been a comfort, as he says he no longer feels lonely and has someone to talk to who can relate to what it is like to be an addict. Kenny explains that he now has his sights set on repairing the relationships he has broken, and wants to share his life story which he calls “the good, the bad and the ugly”.