Family’s fear for Premier League star addicted to laughing gas
His shot conversion is pitiful, fans are turning on him and he deleted every Instagram photo of himself in a Reds shirt. As Barcelona hover…
EMERGENCY services have raced to the aid of a Premier League player diagnosed with an addiction to laughing gas, amid desperate concern for his welfare.
Mail Sport understands a close friend of the star, who has represented his country at Under 21 level, raised the alarm after spotting him surrounded by canisters of illegal nitrous oxide at his city centre flat. It is thought the player, who we are choosing not to name, had been attending rehab to try to kick his habit. Paramedics quickly arrived at the scene, carried out checks and delivered a stark warning to the footballer, who is said to have made repeated attempts to beat an addiction that is putting his health and career in danger.
Police also attended but are not thought to have launched any criminal proceedings. The player’s club are aware of the incident. They have been offering extensive support for some time and were involved in the decision to send him to a specialist rehab centre earlier this season. The call to the emergency services was made last month. It is thought the player’s family harboured concerns that he had suffered a relapse.
The player is aware of the scale of his problem and has made repeated attempts to quit laughing gas. His club are continuing to offer help in the hope he can salvage his career.
Nitrous oxide, known as ‘hippy crack’, is contained in canisters which can be super-sized. The canisters are used to fill balloons, from which the gas is inhaled to provide a quick ‘high’. Usage carries many risks including heart attack, stroke and
AT Old Trafford they referred to it as ‘ unlocking’ Paul Pogba. After winning a mega- scrum to complete the big-money signing of the midfielder, Manchester United spent six seasons trying to mine his elite natural talent.
When returning to Manchester from his first stint at Juventus, he was Europe’s most wanted. But like so many before him at that decaying club, he ended up on the scrap heap. He showed his supreme skills in glimpses, most notably for France, but overall he was an expensive flop.
Pogba could have been this generation’s answer to Zinedine Zidane or Steven Gerrard but English fans were never treated — or put through the trauma — of watching him glide and rip through opposition midfields at will. He left behind a stench of what might have been.
There could be a similar situation for one Liverpool striker. Though a completely different profile of player to Pogba, will fans ever see the real Darwin Nunez on a consistent basis?
On his day, he is an unstoppable force who can torment the best defenders in the world. But those days can be few and far between.
Rival fans have poked fun at him ever since his arrival in England, while even his own so-called supporters have abused him in recent weeks after a sub-par run of form and several high-profile misses.
His last goal came on April 4 and that was after Sheffield United goalkeeper Ivo Grbic went to clear the ball and struck it straight at Nunez’s back-side. It bounced in. His recent scoring record is two in his last 13 games, with the Uruguayan now often consigned to the bench.
A cameo in the 4-2 win over Tottenham on Sunday was littered with errors and the online insults reached fever pitch, resulting in Nunez storming off the pitch and removing all Liverpool-related posts from his Instagram account. It fuelled speculation that he wants out of Anfield.
The sharks of the Spanish media immediately bit and, within hours, Nunez was being linked to Barcelona. It would be easier for them to report which players the
Camp Nou club are not interested in, given the never-ending rumour mill in Catalonia.
But club president Joan Laporta is said to be trying to offload Robert Lewandowski, now 35, which would mean they need a new No 9. Nunez’s agent Jorge Mendes has four clients at Barca, plus another out on loan.
Though it is hard to see how the club, who are still struggling to comply with La Liga’s spending restrictions, could afford him, the speculation increased when Nunez was snapped in Barcelona with their defender Ronald Araujo on Tuesday.
That trip was just a quick break as players were given a few days of annual leave by Jurgen Klopp, with Ibrahima Konate jetting off to a French coastal resort and several stars, including Mohamed Salah, heading to London. Diogo Jota chose a less glamorous destination, with a jaunt to Sheffield to watch snooker.
Barcelona defender Araujo is also a Uruguay team-mate of Nunez and the pair are good friends, having been born three months apart and advanced through the international youth teams together. Nunez’s partner, Lorena Manas, is also from the Catalonia region and has a daughter with a former Barcelona player, Aleix Vidal.
But even though he enjoyed a bit of downtime this week, Nunez has still been the topic of endless debate back in England. So, is it time for Liverpool to wash their hands of him?
Liverpool certainly do not think so. The club’s position is believed to be firm: Nunez is going nowhere. They see Nunez as key to their plans and sources in Merseyside point to how everyone will start afresh when Klopp leaves in a fortnight.
Incoming manager Arne Slot was hired for many reasons — but one of them was his ability to develop players.
One case study is Feyenoord’s star striker Santiago Gimenez, who was plucked from the relative obscurity of Mexican side Cruz Azul.
In Gimenez’s last full season in Liga MX, he scored eight goals in 42 games. Across 86 matches under Slot at Feyenoord, he has netted 49 times. ‘It was a big step for me to come from Mexico to the Netherlands and Arne gave me confidence,’ said Gimenez on Sunday night.
‘He always pushed me to be better. I am really grateful, I hope he can do it well everywhere. As a person and as a coach, he is complete. He understands when to tell you thatt you did well, and also whenhen to tell you if you did badly. He can talk alk really well with h the players.’
Another example is Bournemouth forward Luis Sinisterra, who worked with Slot at Feyenoord before joining g Leeds. ‘Sinisterra ra did not work outt at first here and everyone verygive wanted to give up on him,’ says onene source who has known Slot since he was a player at Sparta Rotterdam.
‘I don’t know what he did but all of a sudden he was fulfilling his potential. He went to Leeds for £25million, one of Feyenoord’s biggest sales ever. Before Slot, he could have gone for a nickel and dime. Slot puts belief in players.’ It would make little financial sense for Liverpool to sell Nunez, who signed in 2022 for a fee that could rise to £ 85million with add- ons based on appearances and team success.
Given his form, Liverpool would be unlikely to recouprecou the mega-fee theythe paid for him. AndAn the club value himh extremely highly regardless, noting his age — still just 24 — and the lack of elitelevel forwards on the European transfer market. trT The striker will lose two of his biggestgest fansf this month when KloppK and righthandhand man Pep Lijnders depart. Lijnders, who speaks five languages including Spanish, spent a lot of time with Nunez on the training pitches last summer, working on the striker being calmer in front of goal.
He also issued a staunch defence
of Nunez when covering for Klopp at a press briefing earlier this season and said it was ‘unfair’ to judge him solely on his goal tally.
Even when he has not been on hot scoring form, the view inside the club is that Nunez was still contributing highly.
For outside observers, though, his statistics speak volumes. Since joining Liverpool, Nunez has scored just 13 of 60 ‘ big chances’, a conversion rate of 21.7 per cent. Of players who have had at least 20 big chances in the same period, only Danny Welbeck has been more wasteful.
He has an expected goals (xG) tally of 28.3 in his time in the Premier League but has scored just 20 times. The only player with a bigger gap between their xG and actual goals in that time is Everton’s Dominic Calvert-Lewin.
Nunez has a shot conversion rate in the league of just 10.5 per cent, meaning he scores roughly one goal for every 10 attempts. By comparison, team-mate Jota has converted 22.4 per cent of his efforts in that period.
Nunez has also hit the woodwork nine times this season, four more times than the next player — Ollie Watkins.
In fairness, delve deeper and his numbers in other areas have improved this season. He has 13 assists compared to four last term, while he has created more chances for team-mates and had more touches.
Nunez is adored by match-going fans and his name is often chanted louder than any other by the Kop, who are mostly desperate for him to succeed. But even the most hardened Liverpool supporter will acknowledge that all is not well with the striker right now.
Deleting his Liverpool-related Instagram posts caused a storm on social media. It could mean nothing but it felt symbolic and it is said Nunez regularly reads comments about himself. When the going gets tough, he will understandably fall into a spiral of sadness.
His career has followed a theme of getting over disappointments. Nunez wanted to quit football when, at 17, his knee buckled and he tore his anterior cruciate ligament playing for Penarol in Montevideo.
He struggled with homesickness when leaving Uruguay for Spain and Almeria.
Nunez was also not helped by being instantly put on Premier League billboards alongside fellow new arrival Erling Haaland. The striker’s camp felt that did not help his confidence, especially when the Norwegian scored 52 goals to Nunez’s 15 in their debut seasons in England.
In a pastoral sense, Liverpool offer support to all players who might be subject to online abuse. They have done a lot to help Nunez feel at home in England, such as South American menu choices and sending him on extra language courses.
It is a lot more nuanced than a simple message of, ‘Stay off social media’, especially when players’ accounts are a vehicle for commercial growth. By the same token, it is much easier said than done for Nunez to follow the advice of ignoring negative comments.
Midfielder Dominik Szoboszlai has also struggled with online abuse. The Hungary captain told a Budapest-based TV station this week: ‘When you don’t play well, in some people’s eyes you’re the worst player on the pitch. But it’s not a problem, we get through these things together.’
Team-mates, led by captain Virgil van Dijk, will put an arm around Nunez when they return to the Kirkby training base after a tough week for the striker. Nunez’s idol, Liverpool great and compatriot Luis Suarez, is regularly in touch.
Publicly, Suarez told him on social media: ‘Thank you scorer for always being there! Always remember (to be) positive and looking forward!’
Nunez will spearhead Uruguay’s Copa America campaign this summer ahead of Inter Miami’s Suarez, who is now often left out by boss Marcelo Bielsa.
So while it is probably correct to label this as a crossroads for Nunez, he could easily return from the tournament full of beans and raring to go having spent a summer with Bielsa.
There will be a fresh start, too, when Slot arrives.
By then, we will be into season three of unlocking Nunez. Unlike Pogba at Old Trafford, Liverpool can be a habitat of success.
Nunez’s head could be turned by Barca, but player and club would be foolish to give up on his time at Anfield just yet.