Paul Gascoigne admits he will never stop drinking and says he will ‘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 regarded as one of the best English footballers of all time, has been in rehab on multiple occasions but says he is unable to completely cut out alcohol from his life.
‘Jimmy Greaves stopped drinking, but that is Jimmy Greaves,’ Gascoigne said in an interview with The Mirror.
‘I am not Jimmy Greaves and I am not George Best. I don’t get drunk because I hate my mum and dad or I hate the public. It is not about that. I do it for the sake of it. I might regret it.
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‘But I don’t think about yesterday, I don’t think about tomorrow. I just think about today and live for today.
‘I have not changed, I cannot change, I would not know how to change.
‘I will probably die as Gazza. But I have nothing to hide. The whole country knows what I have done now.
‘I drank because I wanted to drink, I regretted the consequences afterwards. Now if I have a relapse, I do not go for weeks on end like I did before. Looking back, I must have hurt my mum and dad. But you do not think about it. The person you hurt the most is yourself.’
Gascoigne, who now lives in Poole, Dorset, reveals he tries to help the homeless every day in Bournemouth.
‘I try and do three good deeds every day,’ Gascoigne said
‘It was what I learned at Alcoholics Anonymous. On a Sunday, instead of watching TV, I often go and see the homeless. I might give them a sandwich, money, cigarettes.
‘They are in doorways, there are so many of them, the police move them, and they may go into Boscombe but then go back into town. So I feel for them and helping them makes you feel good about yourself. I have the means to do it.’
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