Strictly Come Dancing star Tony Adams revealed his personal hygiene 'went out the window' when he was at his lowest.
The former footballer, 55, struggled with alcoholism, which almost destroyed him, twenty-six years ago.
At his lowest point, his booze benders saw him sleep with prostitutes, blackout, and end up in intensive care.
He opened up about a bender that began after England's defeat in the European Championship semi-final.
Tony refused to drink before the tournament, but it all changed when he reached for a Carling beer in the dressing room.
"I look over to my right and there it is. The fridge with all the drink. That's what I want. I pull the ring from the can and lager slips down my throat. It's only Carling, but it tastes like Dom Perignon," he wrote in his autobiography, Sober.
"The team sit around the bar, drinking beers, talking about what had happened. Slowly people go to bed, but not me – 3am, 4am, I'm up and drinking. I'm an alkie so that's normal. Nothing out of order, but I drink to pass out. Eventually it's what I do."
The day after saw his teammates return home to be with their partners and families.
However, Tony had nowhere to go as his wife Jane Shea left him and taken their children so he ended up at the pub.
He wrote: "That's the start of a six-week bender. Benders like that are hard to explain: I'm lost, bewildered, confused.
"You know what? There's no use in over-analysing it – I'm just getting smashed the whole time, day after day.
"Everything is about the booze and it becomes a blur. Out in a pub garden or at a club, sometimes eating, often not. Personal hygiene? That goes out the window."
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After reaching rock bottom, Tony turned his life around and ended up winning four major trophies as a player before retiring and going into coaching.
He set up the charity, Sporting Chance, in 2000 to help footballers and other sports stars recover from addiction.
Speaking to talkSPORT back in 2020, Ton revealed he has been sober since the late 90s.
"I’m 24 years without a drink or a drug inside me,” he said.
“It’s not part of my being today, it’s not a thing. It’s been removed from me.
“I still check in and go to regular AA meetings and keep it fresh, because we are human beings and we can forget. We’ve got ‘romantic recall’ they call it when we think of only the good times."
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