England football icon Paul Gascoigne has been hospitalised after being found collapsed and semi-conscious at his Dorset home on Friday evening, with the 58-year-old now reported to be in a stable condition after initially being treated in intensive care.
The former Tottenham and Newcastle midfielder was discovered in the bedroom of his home by close friend Steve Foster, who had arrived to check on him. Gascoigne was immediately rushed to hospital and admitted to the intensive care unit before being moved to an acute medical unit, where he is expected to remain for several days.
Foster, who has been described as Gascoigne’s driver and close companion, issued a brief statement confirming the hospitalisation. “He would like to thank everyone for the support he’s received so far from so many old friends who wish him well and want to see him back to his best,” Foster said.
“Paul is in hospital, which is the best possible place for him to be right now,” he added, though the specific circumstances surrounding the collapse remain unclear. The Sun newspaper first reported the incident, stating that Gascoigne had been found in a semi-conscious state.
The hospitalisation comes just months after Gascoigne had issued a positive update about his health. Speaking to The Mirror earlier this year ahead of releasing his latest book, titled Eight, the former England star had said: “I feel better now than I have in years.”
“I hope I am at a point that I can look back over everything I’ve gone through with a different, more positive, perspective,” Gascoigne had stated. “After so many years in the spotlight, I feel like it’s time people got to know the real me.”
The book’s title references both his iconic shirt number and what he described as the “amount of emotions” he has often endured. Gascoigne’s struggles with alcohol addiction and mental health issues have been well-documented throughout his post-playing career.
The Gateshead-born midfielder first attended therapy sessions for alcohol problems in 1998, when he was admitted to the Priory Hospital after a drinking session involving 32 shots of whisky. Then-Middlesbrough manager Bryan Robson signed him into the clinic whilst Gascoigne was unconscious.
Since then, Gascoigne has entered rehab at least seven times, most recently in January 2014 at a £6,000-a-month clinic in Southampton. He has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and has spoken openly about battling bulimia and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
In 2010, he was charged with drink-driving and given an eight-week suspended sentence. Three years later, he was placed in intensive care at a US hospital while being treated for alcoholism in Arizona, with financial support from former cricketer Ronnie Irani and broadcaster Chris Evans.
Gascoigne was arrested in July 2013 for assaulting a railway security guard and being drunk and disorderly at Stevenage railway station, receiving a £1,000 fine. In 2015, he received a restraining order for harassing an ex-girlfriend and assaulting a photographer.
Speaking on the High Performance Podcast last year about his personal struggles, Gascoigne had reflected: “The things I’ve put myself through, I’m lucky to still be sitting here. I’ve spent a lot of years being down, when I did my ligaments and then my knee-cap, I missed four years of football. I would’ve got 100 caps.”
Of his battle to stay sober, Gascoigne had said: “I don’t blame anyone, I used to blame a lot of people when I was drinking. ‘It’s f****** because he did that.'”
On the pitch, Gascoigne remains one of England’s most celebrated footballers. Capped 57 times between 1988 and 1998, scoring ten goals, he was instrumental in England’s run to the semi-finals of the 1990 World Cup in Italy.
His tears after receiving a yellow card against West Germany in that semi-final, which would have ruled him out of the final had England progressed, became one of football’s most iconic images. Gary Lineker’s gesture to the bench, signalling Gascoigne’s emotional state, remains etched in football folklore.
“My bottom lip was like a helicopter pad,” Gascoigne later wrote of the moment. “I was devastated.” England lost the match on penalties, with Stuart Pearce and Chris Waddle missing from the spot.
Six years later at Euro 96 on home soil, Gascoigne produced another memorable moment with his spectacular solo goal against Scotland, helping England reach the semi-finals before again losing to Germany on penalties.
Glenn Hoddle’s decision to omit him from England’s 1998 World Cup squad proved a crushing blow to both his professional and personal life, effectively ending his international career.
At club level, Gascoigne began his career at Newcastle United, where Jackie Milburn once described him as “the best player in the world” in 1988. He moved to Tottenham Hotspur for £2.2 million in 1987 and won the FA Cup in 1991, though his final was cut short by a serious knee injury.
He subsequently played for Lazio in Italy for £5.5 million, Rangers in Scotland for £4.3 million, and had spells at Middlesbrough, Everton, Burnley, Boston United and Chinese club Gansu Tianma before retiring in 2004. His brief managerial career at Kettering Town in 2005 lasted just 39 days, with alcohol problems cited as a key factor.
The National Football Museum describes Gascoigne as “widely recognised as the most naturally talented English footballer of his generation,” while broadcaster Terry Wogan once called him “probably the most popular man in Britain” at the height of “Gazzamania” in 1990.
Former teammates and colleagues continue to express support for Gascoigne during his ongoing battles. The football community remains hopeful that the man affectionately known as “Gazza” can overcome his demons and find lasting peace.
For now, he remains under medical supervision, with Foster confirming that being in hospital is “the best possible place” for the England legend as he receives the care he needs.
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Image Credit:
Paul Gascoigne, 2021 – Image by Shelagh Delphyne, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0), via Wikimedia Commons.
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