Ex Liverpool keeper who starred in Champions League triumph opens up on battle to kick painkiller addiction

Chris Kirkland celebrated one year clean from prescription painkillers and has opened up on the toll his addiction took on his health.
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Former Liverpool goalkeeper Chris Kirkland has once again opened up about his addiction to painkillers after a relapse during lockdown resulted in an excruciating battle to go cold turkey.

The 42-year-old spoke about his struggles with addiction last year and in a new interview with the i has detailed the extent to which the medication took over his life.

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Kirkland is a lifelong Liverpool fan and played for the Reds between 2001 and 2006, involved in the squads which won the League Cup in 2003 and Champions League in 2005. His playing career was plagued with injuries as he struggled to keep a starting role nailed down.

In April of this year, the former footballer celebrated 365 days clean from the prescription painkillers that had controlled his life for years previous - something he said he was "incredibly proud of".

Kirkland took his first prescription pill in 2012 when at Sheffield Wednesday to help with a back injury and became reliant on the medication as he fought depression as well as physical injuries from his profession.

At the height of his addiction, on bad days the star was taking 2,500 mg of tramadol mixed with solpadine and co-codamol, which he admitted left him thinking he was going to die.

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Kirkland stopped taking the medication in 2016 but relapsed during lockdown. Last March, unable to get another prescription from his GP, the Barwell-born footballer turned to the internet.

Chris Kirkland played for his boyhood club in the Champions League (Image: Getty Images)Chris Kirkland played for his boyhood club in the Champions League (Image: Getty Images)
Chris Kirkland played for his boyhood club in the Champions League (Image: Getty Images)

He said: "Within minutes of taking them I knew I was in trouble. I don’t know what they were but they weren’t painkillers.

"I just didn’t know who I was. I didn’t know where I was or what was happening. I got up the next day and flushed them down the toilet. I still had some proper ones in the house but I knew that day there was no going back.

“I had done it [gone cold turkey] once before in 2019 and I was fine back then, I maybe had a sniffly nose for one or two days. So I thought I’d be fine, I’d done it before. But this was horrendous. I had hallucinations, constant sweats, cold, vomiting, aching and I cramped all over my body.

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“I didn’t sleep for five or six days, basically. Leeona [Kirkland's wife] slept in the room next door to me because I was tossing and turning and she came in to check I was still breathing properly. It is extremely dangerous and it’s not recommended but I didn’t want to taper off, I just didn’t want to put another tablet in my mouth."

To prevent another relapse, Kirkland and his wife have implemented some rules to follow, such as that the postman is not allowed to hand him any packages and his wife issues random drug tests to ensure he is clean.

Kirkland admitted that he still struggles and that his body still needs time to naturally produce the serotonin levels needed without the medicine but takes pleasure in fitness and strives to use his experience to help others.

Next month the star will play as part of Mark Crossley's Mental Health initiative Walking Brilliant's football team as they play Harry's Heroes XI in a charity match.

If you or someone you know is struggling with addiction a range of helplines can be found via mental health charity Mind.

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