I was a Premier League star but if I wasn’t picked for the team I’d get blackout drunk – I’ve woken up in a police cell
THIS former Premier League star once played for some of the country’s biggest clubs.
But he admits to going on drinking binges when he wasn’t picked in the starting XI.
Steven Caulker has bravely revealed he used to get “blackout” drunk after struggling to deal with anxiety from previous binges.
And the one-time England international even woke up in “police cells” and “hospital beds” after forgetting his antics from the night before.
Caulker, 31, currently plays in the Championship for Wigan Athletic.
But in his prime, the centre-back starred in the Premier League for sides like Tottenham, Liverpool and Southampton.
Caulker also enjoyed top-flight spells with Swansea, Cardiff and QPR.
And his travels even took him as far as Turkey, where he played for four different sides.
But Caulker admits there was a dark side to the beautiful game.
And his personal battle involved copious amounts of alcohol.
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The now-Sierra Leone international admits he did not take well to rejection while at Spurs, turning to drink whenever he failed to make the team.
Caulker’s binges were so extreme he would often wake up in police custody, in hospital, or even “covered in blood” on the street.
And post-drinking anxiety affected him so badly that he often turned to booze again, going so far as to arrive at training still drunk before “throwing up in the toilets.”
Caulker told the Under The Cosh podcast: “You’ve got your family and friends there, then it comes to an hour-and-a-half before the game and you’re not even in the squad.
“Nothing’s been communicated to you, you just see your shirt’s not there.
“As a youngster I struggled to process that, and it was just met with rage, and then I’d self-sabotage, I just to go home, just walk away.
“I remember it was West Brom away for Tottenham, I just walked outside, got in the taxi straight back to London and I called my boys on the way back and said, ‘let’s go out’, and we’d go out and get smashed.
“I had a huge problem with alcohol. Not every time I drink but three times out of 10 I’ll black out, and from that moment I don’t remember anything.
“I’d wake up in police cells, I’d wake up in hospital beds, I’ve woken up on the street covered in blood, no recollection. Scary.
“The anxiety after that. For anyone who’s ever been in that cycle will know the next thing to do is drink again.
“Because I can’t handle the anxiety and the fear. Drink again, block it out. And by the time I’m back training Monday, I’m either still drunk or I’m f***ed because I’m hungover.
“I’d be throwing up in the toilets trying to find a way to get through training. That was a vicious, vicious cycle.”