Paul Gascoigne admits he won’t ever stop drinking and says he’ll ‘die as Gazza’ because he cannot change.
The 58-year-old has battled alcohol addiction and mental health problems since retiring from football over 20 years ago.
Gascoigne, widely thought to be probably the greatest English footballers of all time, has been in rehab on multiple occasions but says he’s unable to completely cut out alcohol from his life.
‘Jimmy Greaves stopped drinking, but that’s Jimmy Greaves,’ Gascoigne said in an interview with The Mirror.
‘I’m not Jimmy Greaves and I’m not George Best. I don’t get drunk because I hate my mum and pa or I hate the general public. It isn’t about that. I do it for the sake of it. I would regret it.
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‘But I don’t take into consideration yesterday, I don’t take into consideration tomorrow. I just take into consideration today and live for today.
‘I actually have not modified, I cannot change, I might not know the best way to change.
‘I’ll probably die as Gazza. But I actually have nothing to cover. The entire country knows what I actually have done now.
‘I drank because I desired to drink, I regretted the implications afterwards. Now if I actually have a relapse, I don’t go for weeks on end like I did before. Looking back, I should have hurt my mum and pa. But you don’t give it some thought. The person you hurt probably the most is yourself.’
Gascoigne, who now lives in Poole, Dorset, reveals he tries to assist the homeless each day in Bournemouth.
‘I attempt to do three good deeds each day,’ Gascoigne said
‘It was what I learned at Alcoholics Anonymous. On a Sunday, as an alternative of watching TV, I often go and see the homeless. I would give them a sandwich, money, cigarettes.
‘They’re in doorways, there are such a lot of of them, the police move them, they usually may go into Boscombe but then return into town. So I feel for them and helping them makes you are feeling good about yourself. I actually have the means to do it.’
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