Former Manchester United and Everton star Darron Gibson has opened up on his battle with an addiction to sleeping pills in a new interview.
The 36-year-old enjoyed an illustrious playing career after rising through ranks at United before promotion to the senior squad. 
Whilst his seven-year stint at Old Trafford was peppered with loan spells, the Republic of Ireland international later turned out for Everton, Sunderland, and Wigan.
The midfielder retired in 2021 after his final season at Salford City, increasingly hampered by the injuries that had plagued his senior career.
But Gibson revealed that retirement gave rise to a growing dependence on sleeping tablets, which saw him taking between 12 and 14 pills a day at the height of his addiction.
Ex-Man United player Darron Gibson (right) has opened up about his sleeping pill addiction
The former Everton midfielder struggled after retiring, and at his addiction’s height, the 36-
He later suffered a seizure that saw him hospitalised, which in his words, ‘changed everything’.
‘I don’t even think I was functioning at that point,’ Gibson told The 42. ‘Looking back at pictures, I was grey, if I had kept going I would have died. I was taking 12 to 14 sleeping tablets a night.
