Post by QPR Report on Sept 26, 2009 23:20:14 GMT
Mail / Rob Draper
Burnley star Clarke Carlisle: The day I knew I had to give up drinking
,
The turning point for Clarke Carlisle came as he curled up in a corner seat of the team coach as QPR prepared to drive to their overnight stay before a match at Colchester.
He was hoping no one would smell his breath and manager Ian Holloway would be unaware that he was still drunk from the night before.
'It was a Friday morning,' remembers Carlisle. 'I tried to hide on the bus, I didn't talk to anyone and I slumped myself in the corner, but it was blatantly obvious. I knew I'd get my comeuppance if Olly (Holloway) caught wind, which he did. I was half-expecting it, probably.'
To the fans and staff at Burnley, where Carlisle is the defensive lynchpin in their impressive start in the Premier League, it all seems barely credible. 'He's super, isn't he,' says the receptionist at Turf Moor, expressing a view that each member of staff repeats.
There is no more popular footballer at the club and yet, six years ago this month, Carlisle was undergoing rehabilitation at the Sporting Chance clinic set up by Tony Adams.
Despite drinking heavily every night, Carlisle's career had progressed from Blackpool to QPR and on to England Under-21 status. He admits that often an evening out would begin with eight pints of lager before moving on to spirits. Incredibly, he would still be able to train the next day.
'It was only when it got to the point that it was virtually every day that it became noticeable,' he says. 'The more I found I could get away with, the more I allowed myself to do.'
Just the one: Carlisle allowed himself a glass of champagne after Burnley's playoff win secured promotion to the Premier League at the end of last season
Reaching a recognisable nadir enabled Carlisle to begin the slow climb back to the top. Next month he is 30 and for the first time in his career, which has also taken in Watford and Leeds, he is a regular Premier League defender, a status many who watched him as a teenager assumed he would achieve effortlessly.
He did play for Watford in the Premier League, but only after they had already been relegated, injury keeping him out for most of the season.
'This time it's been entirely different,' says Carlisle. 'We toiled all last season to earn the right to play the best teams in the nation and now we're revelling in it. No one can take a victory at home against Manchester United in the Premier League away from me. That's definitely something I will hold dear.'
Happy on the pitch and settled off it - he is married to Gemma and they have a 22-month-old son, Marley, and Carlisle's 10-year-old daughter, Francesca, from a previous relationship - Carlisle attributes that fateful weekend in September 2003, when Holloway hauled him off the bus and sent him home, as the point at which his recovery began.
'The next day my eyes opened to what I was doing to myself and my career,' he says. 'It only takes a minor moment. I was having a pint and watching the results come in that Saturday afternoon and I thought, 'What are you doing, waiting to see the result of your team coming in on TV? You should be playing!' The next day I rang Olly and said, 'I don't know what's going on here, I need help'.'
Tough assignment: Carlisle marshalls Tottenham's Jermain Defoe
A month of rehabilitation and subsequent counselling allowed him to identify issues in his life which drove him to alcohol. Now he is teetotal and in good company at Burnley. Manager Owen Coyle has never touched alcohol, despite growing up in an era when heavy drinking was almost compulsory at some football clubs.
'I only just found out that the gaffer is teetotal,' says Carlisle. 'We've talked about it and what he has seen drinking do to people. It's something he never wants to play with. You can have nothing but respect for that. The man must have had unbelievable drive when he was young, when you're very impressionable.'
Carlisle is happy now to acknowledge that one of the ironies of his life was that during his period of alcoholism he was hailed as Britain's Brainiest Footballer after answering questions on human biology on a television show.
'Intelligence and common sense are two different things,' says Carlisle, who as a boy achieved 10 A-grades at GCSE at Balshaws School in Leyland, Lancashire. His parents, both practising Christians, instilled a strong work ethic in him and they remain an influence.
'When you're going through low times you feel very isolated, but when you come out the other side and look back, that's when you see where your help came from,' says Carlisle. 'At times it [Christianity] didn't feel like a source of strength but now I can see that it was.'
He and his wife became regular churchgoers during their time at Watford and are searching for a church near their new home in Ripponden. He admits that his perspective on his professional and family life has changed.
'I came to a point last year where I said to Gemma, 'I'm sick of striving. Instead of looking at what everyone else has got, let's look at what we've got and enjoy it'.
'Now I'm just thoroughly enjoying what's happening and the success that has come with that has been phenomenal. Winning the play-off final was probably the biggest sporting occasion of my life.'
He even allowed himself just one celebratory drink. 'I had a glass of champagne with everyone at the play-off final,' he says. 'Some alcoholics can't deal with a drop; others are bit more free with how they live their lives afterwards.
'The reasons behind that one drink were not the same as my reasons in the past. Before, I'd go out to get obliterated. That's not on the agenda any more.'
Read more: www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1216408/Burnley-star-Clarke-Carlisle-The-day-I-knew-I-drinking.html#ixzz0SG1ghBIa
Burnley star Clarke Carlisle: The day I knew I had to give up drinking
,
The turning point for Clarke Carlisle came as he curled up in a corner seat of the team coach as QPR prepared to drive to their overnight stay before a match at Colchester.
He was hoping no one would smell his breath and manager Ian Holloway would be unaware that he was still drunk from the night before.
'It was a Friday morning,' remembers Carlisle. 'I tried to hide on the bus, I didn't talk to anyone and I slumped myself in the corner, but it was blatantly obvious. I knew I'd get my comeuppance if Olly (Holloway) caught wind, which he did. I was half-expecting it, probably.'
To the fans and staff at Burnley, where Carlisle is the defensive lynchpin in their impressive start in the Premier League, it all seems barely credible. 'He's super, isn't he,' says the receptionist at Turf Moor, expressing a view that each member of staff repeats.
There is no more popular footballer at the club and yet, six years ago this month, Carlisle was undergoing rehabilitation at the Sporting Chance clinic set up by Tony Adams.
Despite drinking heavily every night, Carlisle's career had progressed from Blackpool to QPR and on to England Under-21 status. He admits that often an evening out would begin with eight pints of lager before moving on to spirits. Incredibly, he would still be able to train the next day.
'It was only when it got to the point that it was virtually every day that it became noticeable,' he says. 'The more I found I could get away with, the more I allowed myself to do.'
Just the one: Carlisle allowed himself a glass of champagne after Burnley's playoff win secured promotion to the Premier League at the end of last season
Reaching a recognisable nadir enabled Carlisle to begin the slow climb back to the top. Next month he is 30 and for the first time in his career, which has also taken in Watford and Leeds, he is a regular Premier League defender, a status many who watched him as a teenager assumed he would achieve effortlessly.
He did play for Watford in the Premier League, but only after they had already been relegated, injury keeping him out for most of the season.
'This time it's been entirely different,' says Carlisle. 'We toiled all last season to earn the right to play the best teams in the nation and now we're revelling in it. No one can take a victory at home against Manchester United in the Premier League away from me. That's definitely something I will hold dear.'
Happy on the pitch and settled off it - he is married to Gemma and they have a 22-month-old son, Marley, and Carlisle's 10-year-old daughter, Francesca, from a previous relationship - Carlisle attributes that fateful weekend in September 2003, when Holloway hauled him off the bus and sent him home, as the point at which his recovery began.
'The next day my eyes opened to what I was doing to myself and my career,' he says. 'It only takes a minor moment. I was having a pint and watching the results come in that Saturday afternoon and I thought, 'What are you doing, waiting to see the result of your team coming in on TV? You should be playing!' The next day I rang Olly and said, 'I don't know what's going on here, I need help'.'
Tough assignment: Carlisle marshalls Tottenham's Jermain Defoe
A month of rehabilitation and subsequent counselling allowed him to identify issues in his life which drove him to alcohol. Now he is teetotal and in good company at Burnley. Manager Owen Coyle has never touched alcohol, despite growing up in an era when heavy drinking was almost compulsory at some football clubs.
'I only just found out that the gaffer is teetotal,' says Carlisle. 'We've talked about it and what he has seen drinking do to people. It's something he never wants to play with. You can have nothing but respect for that. The man must have had unbelievable drive when he was young, when you're very impressionable.'
Carlisle is happy now to acknowledge that one of the ironies of his life was that during his period of alcoholism he was hailed as Britain's Brainiest Footballer after answering questions on human biology on a television show.
'Intelligence and common sense are two different things,' says Carlisle, who as a boy achieved 10 A-grades at GCSE at Balshaws School in Leyland, Lancashire. His parents, both practising Christians, instilled a strong work ethic in him and they remain an influence.
'When you're going through low times you feel very isolated, but when you come out the other side and look back, that's when you see where your help came from,' says Carlisle. 'At times it [Christianity] didn't feel like a source of strength but now I can see that it was.'
He and his wife became regular churchgoers during their time at Watford and are searching for a church near their new home in Ripponden. He admits that his perspective on his professional and family life has changed.
'I came to a point last year where I said to Gemma, 'I'm sick of striving. Instead of looking at what everyone else has got, let's look at what we've got and enjoy it'.
'Now I'm just thoroughly enjoying what's happening and the success that has come with that has been phenomenal. Winning the play-off final was probably the biggest sporting occasion of my life.'
He even allowed himself just one celebratory drink. 'I had a glass of champagne with everyone at the play-off final,' he says. 'Some alcoholics can't deal with a drop; others are bit more free with how they live their lives afterwards.
'The reasons behind that one drink were not the same as my reasons in the past. Before, I'd go out to get obliterated. That's not on the agenda any more.'
Read more: www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1216408/Burnley-star-Clarke-Carlisle-The-day-I-knew-I-drinking.html#ixzz0SG1ghBIa