Neil Ruddock: 'I spent hundreds of thousands of pounds on booze - it nearly killed me'
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This time five years ago, Neil ‘Razor’ Ruddock would have been nursing an almighty Christmas hangover while his wife Leah and their two daughters waited for him to get ready. There may have been raised voices and slammed doors, before Neil would leave to meet pals down the pub for yet another day of drinking.
Now though, the 56-year-old footballing legend is looking forward to ringing in the New Year with a clear head. By 2020, after decades of hard partying, drinking and gorging on unhealthy food had taken its toll, Razor’s weight had soared to 27 stone (171kg) and his heart had developed an arrhythmia.
Doctors told him he had weeks to live if he didn’t change his ways, and friends were worried. Robbie Williams video-called him from LA begging him to stop the drinking, while Robbie Fowler was having concerned conversations with Leah behind his back.
It wasn’t until a furious confrontation with his old pal and England teammate Paul Merson - caught on camera in the ITV reality show Harry’s Heroes: Euro Having A Laugh - that Razor realised how serious the situation had become. The show, ostensibly about Harry Redknapp getting a team of former England legends fighting fit so they could take on the Germans once again, showed Merse begging Ruddock to cut down on his drinking, saying “you were like me nine months ago”.
