DAVID JAMES has revealed how his mental health suffered while on the bench at Liverpool.
The former England goalkeeper, 52, was at Liverpool for seven seasons between 1992 and 1999 – making 277 appearances.
However, in the 1993/94 season James lost his place in the first team and soon found both his mental and physical health to be deteriorating.
Speaking on the matter to William Hill podcast Up Front with Simon Jordan, James explained how the lack of a fitness regime saw him reach 17-stone.
He said: "I reached 17-stone, we didn’t have a fitness regime, and I was fat.
"The frustration was that I wasn’t playing to a level I felt I should be playing at.
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"I’m not going to say that I should have been the best goalkeeper in the world, but I can’t think of anything that another goalkeeper has done that I couldn’t do.
“I was then out of the team for eight months in my second season – I was actually sent off at the end of the first season against Norwich, so I missed the first game of the next season and never made it back into the side under Graeme Souness."
James, eventually found his way back into the team before leaving Liverpool for Aston Villa. He later went on to play for West Ham, Manchester City and Portsmouth in the Premier League.
In addition to his physical issues, the 53-cap Three Lion also explained how having a chat with a doctor helped him with his mental health, despite Liverpool not believing in sports psychology at the time.
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James added: "I thought that I needed to change because I wasn’t in the first team, so I approached the club doctor and asked if he knew a sports psychologist.
“He said that Liverpool didn’t believe in that, but I’ll have a look for you.
"So, this doctor got someone to come over and we sat in my kitchen for two hours – and I wasn’t one for inviting people into my house for private space and all that – so then when I went into work the next day, I went to the doctor and said that he was amazing.
"He said that he wasn’t a sports psychologist, I don’t know what he did, but that two-hour conversation made things change.
“The reason these people were having a go at me was that I wasn’t being the professional I could have been.
"So when they were calling me ‘Calamity James’, saying I was addicted to Xbox, and that I couldn’t catch a cold, it was a case of ‘I know I can’, but why am I not doing that?"
Since retiring in 2015, James has gone on to appear on Strictly Come Dancing and feature in Soccer Aid.
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