- Paul Walsh describes his struggles with addiction
- Discusses the “drink culture” in football during the 1980s
- Paul spoke to former cricketer, Luke Sutton, who is also in recovery, on Priory's ‘Sporting Highs and Lows’ podcast
- Paul now volunteers at a Priory centre, helping people in addiction treatment
Former Liverpool and Tottenham striker, Paul Walsh, has opened up about his struggles with alcohol, on a podcast with former professional cricketer, Luke Sutton. Walsh, who played for the club in the 1980s and was later a popular face on Sky’s Soccer Saturday, has now been in recovery for 4 and a half years, and has been volunteering to help others with similar struggles at the Manor Clinic in Southampton for the past 3 years.
Paul’s struggles with alcohol began as early as his late teens, continuing when he was a young professional player in the 1980s. “There was a drink culture in football at that time, so it was allowed, if you like” he explains. “I was fighting with people, falling out with people…masking my poor performance with girls and nights out.”
Despite his lifestyle, he was able to build a successful career at Liverpool, before moving to Spurs in 1988. However, by this point alcohol was taking its toll on his undoubted talent. “I had a period at Spurs where I drunk-drove all over the place, I couldn’t go to training on a Monday.” Walsh added that he was already “in drink and mess around mode” when he joined the club, and he didn’t make the most of “a good chance”.
Speaking to former cricketer, Luke Sutton, who is also in recovery, Paul reflected on how he ended up struggling with addiction. “The early influences in my life had a bearing on my thinking” he said, and he shared the story of his first ever drink. As a child of around 14, his Sunday football manager took the team on a trip to the Munich Olympic Stadium. He then took them to a bierkeller in the city, and brought them a large stein glass each. “We’re all drinking it, thinking we’re grown-ups and I’m getting it down me as quick as I can” says Walsh, but the drink made him sick, and it “nearly spoilt the trip”. Despite this potentially off-putting experience, he “couldn't wait to get in the pub at 16”.
In the deeply personal podcast, Walsh explains how, as time progressed, alcohol began playing a larger and larger role in his life. “All my insecurities and fears, when I had a few beers, went out the window….drink was a solution to me, it became a solution right the way through”. The pressures of competing in elite sport are immense, and Walsh found that he needed drink more and more, just to carry on: “I couldn’t sleep after a game, so I used to drink my head to sleep.”
After his playing career ended, he reinvented himself as a TV pundit and a football agent. However, alcohol continued to have its hold on him, and put increasing pressure on his relationship with his family. Things came to a head at his father’s 80th birthday party: “As we stood outside the restaurant I turned round and smashed my son in the face. We had a scuffle and I knocked my mum over.
“The next day when I got my head off the pillow I felt suicidal…I was sick and tired of feeling sick and tired.” The next weekend, he took his children to an England veterans game at Upton Park, but after what had happened, there was a “horrible atmosphere”, and that was when he decided he never wanted to drink again.
He eventually sought help with Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). “I have to do a lot of meetings, I still do at least five a week” explains Walsh, who has been in recovery for 4 and a half years. “I constantly have to say the same things to remind this thick head what it’s like if it’s left alone untreated.”
Recovering from addiction is a tough path to follow, but it's working for Paul. “Both my kids have come back to me, mostly, my wife and I are happier” he says. “It’s never going to be perfect. I still try to make amends because of my guilt”.
As part of his recovery he does 'prison service', which involves running meetings for prison inmates who are in recovery from addiction. “I’m not trying to make excuses for why they’re there” explains Walsh, continuing “they’ve had much worse situations than me…I come out of there quite humble and quite grateful.”
Priory’s ‘Sporting Highs and Lows’ podcast will be exploring the links between addiction, mental health and sport. It will feature guests from across the world of sport, sharing their experiences of mental health and addiction challenges and outlining the role professional sport plays to drive this.
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About Priory and MEDIAN
Priory is the UK’s leading independent provider of mental health services. We treat more than 70 conditions, including depression, anxiety, addictions and eating disorders, as well as children’s mental health, across our nationwide network of sites. We also support autistic adults and adults with a learning disability, Prader-Willi Syndrome and brain injuries, as well as older people, within our specialist residential care and supported living facilities – helping as many people as possible to live their lives.
Priory is part of the MEDIAN Group, one of Europe’s leading providers of high quality mental health and rehabilitation services. The MEDIAN Group comprises 290 facilities with 5,000 beds caring for 28,000 people in the UK, 120 facilities with 20,000 beds caring for around 250,000 patients in Germany, and 15 facilities with 2,000 beds caring for 13,000 people in Spain, with more than 29,000 employees overall.