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Football legend Paul Gascoigne has revealed that his loved ones avoid the Christmas booze due to his addiction to alcohol.

Gazza, 58, makes a 700-mile round trip from his flat in Poole, Dorset to his hometown of Gateshead to see his mum Carol, 82, sisters Anna, 59, Lindsay, 52, and brother Carl, 56.

He told the Mirror: "The family does not drink around me, so I have to shoot off and just let them get on with it. I love to see them, we go into one house. I will probably get a taxi, it costs around £900 to get back home.

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"But I will open my presents when I get back to Dorset. I usually get slippers, a dressing gown and wine gums, and Brut from my mum." He added: "I used to advertise their aftershave so it is a bit of a family joke; my sister Anna might get me the wine gums."

He gives his family cash presents. We spoke with Paul to promote his latest book 'Eight' with Reach Sport, which entered the pre-Christmas best sellers list.

He gave us an unflinching account of his battle with the bottle since he stopped playing. And he admitted that he has never been able to fully give up booze, despite many periods in rehab.

"Jimmy Greaves stopped drinking, but that is Jimmy Greaves," he said. "I am not Jimmy Greaves and I am not George Best.

"I don't get drunk because I hate my mum and dad or I hate the public. It is not about that. I do it for the sake of it. I might regret it. But I don't think about yesterday, I don't think about tomorrow. I just think about today and live for today."

He joked his mum is now the only person on the planet who calls him 'Paul' and not 'Gazza'. Of the pain that addiction has caused his family, he said: "I will probably die as Gazza. But I have nothing to hide.

"The whole country knows what I have done now. Looking back, I must have hurt my mum and dad.

But you do not think about it.

"The person you hurt the most is yourself."

He has been forced to undergo 38 operations, the worst being the cruciate ligament injury to his left knee in the 1991 FA Cup final.

He was also attacked in a Newcastle night club as he recovered from that injury, requiring further surgery on his road to recovery.

He badly injured his shoulder when he fell out of a palm tree trying to collect a coconut on the 2021 Italian version of 'I'm a Celebrity'.

The former England, Newcastle Utd, Spurs and Lazio star had to be airlifted off the coast of Honduras, setting for the series.

He also had an injection into his heart during a rehab session in Arizona in 2013 when he thought that he was going to die

* Paul Gascoigne, Eight, The Real Gazza is on sale now.

Go to: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Paul-Gascoigne-Eight-Gazza-Revealed/dp/1916811434