Former Tottenham midfielder Jamie O’Hara has admitted that he battled with sleeping pills during his playing career.
O’Hara came through the youth ranks at Tottenham and went on to break into the first-team in 2007, making 56 appearances for the North Londoners in all competitions (transfermarkt).
The midfielder subsequently went on to represent Portsmouth, Wolves, Blackpool and Fulham before serving as manager of non-league Billericay Town after hanging up his boots.
The Sun recently published an exposé claiming that scores of Premier League stars are addicted to prescription pills, with players often mixing sleeping pills with alcohol to chase a recreational high.
The report revealed that players often used pills such as Zopiclone and Zolpidem, which could potentially be a threat not just to their playing careers but also to their lives.
O’Hara revealed that sleeping pills were first prescribed to him by a club doctor and he started using them more often than he would have wanted and felt himself becoming on the verge of being reliant on them.
He told The Sun: “I used sleeping pills a lot. After games on a Tuesday night I was always terrible at sleeping.
MORE SPURS STORIES
“The adrenaline is pumping, you’ve got the emotion of the game, the atmosphere, the crowd. The problem was I then became a little dependent on them. I wanted them all the time so I started taking them quite a bit.
“I wouldn’t say I was addicted to them but I ended up getting to a point where I wanted to stop because I felt like I was needing them more.”
The midfielder however expressed his surprise that footballers would use the pills for a recreational high.
He added: “I can understand why people are taking them but I don’t understand why they are trying to get a high out of it. They need help.”
Keep up to date with all the latest Tottenham news and opinion by following SpursWeb’s Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts.
