Within a year of retirement I was in rehab. I couldn't admit I had a drinking problem
| Published date | 22 December 2020 |
| Date | 22 December 2020 |
| Publication title | Evening Chronicle |
After retiring from the game, Neil launched his TV career with a spot on I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! in 2004. More recently, in 2019 he reached the final three on Celebrity MasterChef, before appearing in Harry's Heroes, which saw Harry Redknapp train up a group of former players for one more game.
Concerns over his health led Neil to get a check-up that revealed serious problems with his heart.
Now 52, his latest project is a book, The World According To Razor: My Closest Shaves, which is "like having a pint down the pub with the man himself", according to his publisher.
Here, the man himself tells us why he hasn't been down the pub in quite a while, for some very good reasons... Drink has been a major part of your life, hasn't it?
I WAS brought up with drinking. You'd go out with your team-mates on a Tuesday and after the game. You do what the older players do. It's like traditions in families - I knew no different. Now, there's no drinking after the game - they go home to bed. Is football better now?
I THINK the players are fitter but, as a spectacle, I think the game was much better in my day. It's very tactical now, a bit boring. In my day, there were more goals, and you were allowed to kick each other without the other player rolling about trying to get you sent off. We didn't need VAR [Video Assistant Referee]. You mention in the book it became hard to separate your on-pitch and off-pitch personas. Can you tell us about that? I WAS sort of the biggest personality in the dressing room. Everyone wanted to have a drink with you, have a laugh with you, and it was difficult to keep that up. It was like a mask, really. Some days I couldn't wait to get home to take that mask off and just be normal.
When you're growing up, it's nice to be recognised, everybody loves you. But the older you get, it's not so nice, you just want to be left alone. When did the sheen wear off? I COULDN'T wait to get to 35 and retire. My knees were going. People don't understand - you're putting your legs through miles and miles of training, heading 100 balls a day, and your body can't do what it used to. You know it's time, but you wait for that 35th...
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