Former Manchester United footballer: 'I was taking 12 to 14 sleeping tablets every day'

Former Manchester United player Darron Gibson has revealed that he struggled with an addiction to sleeping pills, taking between 12 and 14 tablets a day.

Darron Gibson

When he finished his career in 2021, the problem worsened. Until one day he had a seizure and ended up in hospital, realising he had to 'cut' his addiction.

- At the time, I wasn't even functioning. I look at pictures from that time and see that I was grey. If I had continued, I would have died. I was taking 12 to 14 sleeping pills every day.

I was taken to hospital but I didn't tell anyone about the pills. Danielle [his wife] knew I was taking them, but she didn't know exactly how many. I was good at hiding the problem .... Sometimes I would take them all at once when we went to bed, telling her I would get her a glass of water.

I'm not ashamed to say now that I was sick, but back then I didn't tell anyone at the hospital. The doctors thought it was epilepsy, but no. It was the pills, I'd been taking them for years," Gibson, 36, told The 42.