Gascoigne spent €24k on stomach pellet op to give up drinking
The ex-England international has revealed that he spent £20,000 in 2018 on a trip to Australia to have pellets inserted in his stomach that stop him from drinking.
Former England star Paul Gascoigne has admitted to spending up to £20,000 (€24,000) on a radical operation in Australia, including travel expenses, to stop him from drinking.
The ex-Tottenham, Newcastle and Rangers midfielder has battled with alcohol addiction since his retirement in 2005 and for the first time has revealed details of the extreme lengths he went to in 2018 in a bid to change his ways.
“I’ve been to Australia, and spent £20,000 including all the travel, to get an operation that stops me drinking,” Gascoigne told the Daily Mirror.
“You get pellets in your stomach and it makes you feel sick if you have too much. It means you can have a beer or a glass of wine and socialise, but you cannot have any more.
"As soon as you touch drugs or spirits it makes you feel sick. I just want to go and get drunk sometimes, and that’s what I have to stop. One drink can be too many, and then 50 is not enough.”
Gascoigne: "I am a connoisseur of rehabs"
The operation, he ensures, has worked and helped him to beat his demons.
“I can walk down the booze aisle in Sainsbury’s – my arm doesn’t reach out to buy it so much now. I can control that urge,” he said
“You have connoisseurs of wine. I am a connoisseur of rehabs. I’ve been for Calpol, I’ve been for Red Bull, for laxatives – once I just went for a holiday.”
Despite having blown his £20million fortune and being single for over two decades. Gazza, who was cleared last October of sexual assaulting a woman on a train in 2018, admits he is the happiest he has been “for many years”.
He said: “I’m in a better place… I’m content now, happy in myself. I’ve just had my first holiday in 15 years in Tenerife, and I’m enjoying myself for the first time in a very long time.”