Darron Gibson tells David Sneyd about addiction, recovery, and the moment his life changed.
David Sneyd DARRON GIBSON IS sitting in the same spot on the couch where he was forced to confront the sleeping pill addiction that had slowly consumed his life over much of the past decade.
On the opposite wall is a picture of Gibson, Danielle and Evie in the back of the wedding car just after the ceremony 10 years ago.“I don’t even think I was functioning at that point. Looking back at pictures, I was grey, if I had of kept going I would have died. I was taking 12 to 14 sleeping tablets a night.
When he ruptured his cruciate knee ligament while on Ireland duty in October 2013 – 10 years ago last week – the downfall began. His body slowly gave way with numerous issues before a broken leg in October 2020, and the complications which followed when one of the 10 screws bolted inside became infected, led to his retirement a year later.“When I got back to the house, she asked me how I was feeling. I told her my body just felt sore,” Gibson says.
“It was the worst feeling in my life. If I’d have gone to jail, I don’t know if I’d have survived,” he says. “Honestly, I wasn’t really looking forward to the match because of that fear of getting hurt again but as soon as I was in the changing room, surrounded by all the lads, I thought to myself, ‘I am actually buzzing to play in this now’. I hadn’t had that feeling for a long time. Holding the United shirt again, putting it on. There were so many memories going through my head, especially with that group.”So he was never going to make up an excuse to avoid travelling to Edinburgh.
Gray was with him when the pair spotted their old driving instructor Sue and made a beeline to say hello. David Sneyd: You’ve said you’re happy now, does that make you think about other stages of your life and the kind of person you were before? Alamy Stock Photo Darron Gibson with his wife Danielle leaving South Tyneside Magistrates' Court. Alamy Stock PhotoDS: Both.DS: What about at home, your parents and sisters ?
The 30-year-old was three times over the limit when he smashed his Mercedes 4×4 into parked cars on St Patrick’s Day, South Tyneside Magistrates’ Court was told last month. The incident in Sunderland followed a serious collision in 2015 when his car hit three cyclists who were fixing a wheel on the pavement.
DS: There will be people reading who might have lost loved ones and friends or people they knew because of drunk driving. Out in front, holding a player of the month trophy for January and another one to recognise the feat of scoring 20 Premier League goals, is striker Wayne Rooney. Michael Carrick is behind Michael Owen. Rio Ferdinand, Nemanja Vidic, Patrice Evra and Paul Scholes are beaming on the left side with Nani, Anderson and Dimitar Berbatov.Cristiano Ronaldo had departed for Real Madrid the previous summer.
This was all a long way from the seven-year-old boy in Derry who caught the attention of one of his uncles – he estimates his parents have around 16 siblings between them – by doing keepie-uppies with a tennis ball as a party trick in the garden after his sister’s christening. “Oxo ran over, ‘What’s wrong, what’s wrong?’ I told him it was my elbow. He just went, ‘Fuck, thank God for that, I thought it was your leg’.”
Now he has a room in his house, just off the kitchen where large maps of Derry and Manchester hang side by side on the wall, with some photos and mementos of his own. There are no framed action shots of his goals in the Champions League quarter-final against Bayern Munich in 2010 or from the semi-final against Schalke the following year. There is one of Nelson Mandela when they went to South Africa on pre-season in 2006, and with the Premier League trophy alongside his friends Fletcher, Evans and Rooney.
“It’s funny, Reggie goes through this book and when he sees this picture he’s fuming because it’s Evie in it and not him. The same with the wedding car one. He’ll be fuming, ‘Why am I not in there?’ ‘Because you weren’t born yet, buddy!’”Alamy Stock Photo Gibson and Ireland boss Giovanni Trapattoni during Euro 2012. Alamy Stock PhotoDarron Gibson: I was happy. I did enjoy playing but I am a lot happier now. I probably looked angry all the time when I played.
DG: There was a night out but it had been allowed and it was before the Euros. We were allowed out to a certain time. Some left, and I stayed out, I won’t say who with. But if I was told that was the reason for not playing, I would have held my hands up and said, ‘You know what, it’s my own fault, I was fucking stupid and I’ll take my medicine’. But they were telling me it was because I was one for the future.
“It worked out better that way. It was quick, there were no bad feelings or intentions. It was fair enough.”
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