Wayne Rooney has said he feared killing someone or dying during the worst of his alcohol problems.
The Derby County manager, and record goalscorer for both Manchester United and England, was speaking before the release of a new TV documentary about his life.
He shared that his biggest fear when he felt he was at rock-bottom was “death.”
Rooney, released on Amazon Prime Video on Friday, follows his life from his council estate upbringing to the heights of his football career and his relationship with his wife of 14 years Coleen.
Speaking to BBC Breakfast’s Sally Nugent, the 36-year-old discussed some of his “mistakes” and said: “That could have been girls, it could have been drink-driving, which I’ve done, it could have been killing someone – you could kill yourself – and that’s a bad place to be.
“I knew I needed help, to save myself but also to save my family.”
He said he felt unable to speak up about his issues when he was still a football player: “Ten, 15 years ago, I couldn’t go into a dressing room and say ‘I’m struggling with alcohol, I’m struggling mental-health-wise’. I couldn’t do that.”
The former striker made his debut for Everton at the age of just 16, scoring on his first-ever appearance against Arsenal. He became Derby player-coach in 2019 and retired from playing after being appointed permanent manager in January 2021.
Rooney explores how his previous run-ins with both alcohol and other women impacted his marriage.
In 2018, he was ordered to complete 100 hours of unpaid community work after admitting being nearly three times the legal drink drive limit while at the wheel of another woman’s car following a night out.
Following the incident, he vowed to make his marriage with Coleen work.
Rooney was also photographed in a hotel room asleep by three other women in July of last year.
He claimed at the time he was the victim of a “set up” and made an official report to police after insisting he did nothing wrong.
In 2019, the Derby manager was detained by police after a flight from Saudi Arabia touched down in the US, following accusations of public intoxication and swearing.
He later said he was left “disorientated” by prescribed sleeping tablets he took on a flight while drinking.
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Speaking about the decision to stay with her husband, Coleen told the documentary: “When you’re making those decisions you’ve got to focus on what you want and not what else.
“Obviously, I listen to the people who matter to me – my mum and dad and they’ve always given me a positive outlook on things and there’s nothing that we can’t deal with.
“Hopefully he’s learnt and he doesn’t get himself into any of them horrible situations again. But it’s happened and I’ve got to live with it and if I couldn’t cope with living with it I would have ended the relationship.”
from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/kryQtPJ
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