Ex-Man Utd ace drank '15 pints a day' and felt nothing and became Inbetweeners cult hero - Express 17/9/23

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The former Manchester United star has spoken out about how a significant injury impacted his career.

By CHARLIE PARKER-TURNER

Ex-Manchester United forward Lee Sharpe has revealed that he went through a spell of drinking 15 pints a day without feeling drunk due to the stresses he was under whilst at Leeds. The forward sustained a knee injury in 1997 which ruled him out for the majority of their campaign, in what the former player has described as a ‘dark time’.

Sharpe enjoyed plenty of success in the Premier League, winning the title on three occasions whilst at United. The former England international left Old Trafford in 1996 in favour of more regular opportunities at Leeds, becoming their joint-record signing after leaving for approximately £4.5million.

Although he made 30 appearances for the Whites, Sharpe’s spell at the club did not pan out how he would have hoped due to his injury troubles. In an interview with Undr The Cosh, the 52-year-old has revealed that snapping the cruciate ligament in his knee on the cusp of the 1997/98 season led to him enduring one of his toughest spells as a footballer.

Sharpe spoke of how manager George Graham still demanded plenty from him despite being sidelined, explaining: “You had to come in before everybody else at training so you had to drive through rush hour. You then had to do a session after they’d done lunch. You did a three o’clock session so you’d have to drive through rush hour again at five.

“He was just making things really awkward so it was a really depressing, dark time to be injured. It felt like all the injured players were being punished. It made it twice as hard.”

Asked if that prompted him to turn to drinking, Sharpe continued: “At the start I did. I’m not a massive drinker. I can drink and stay all right, then I get to a point where I’m like, ‘right, now I need to go to sleep’.

“My pint limit on a good day is seven or eight, then a couple of shorts to see me off at the end. I reckon I was going out then, having 15 pints and not feeling drunk because of the situation. I was having 15 pints a day.”

Sharpe has headed into the media since his retirement and has featured as a pundit for Premier League matches for foreign broadcasters, whilst also breaking into mainstream television with appearances on Dancing On Ice and Saturday Night Takeaway.

The ex-forward also saw his profile grow due to how he was referenced in a scene in the Inbetweeners.

Whilst at a pub, named The Black Horse, friends Neil and Jay insisted that Sharpe was the answer to a general knowledge question and continued to shout ‘Lee Sharpe, Lee Sharpe’, before being left with egg on their faces when they discovered that Roy Keane was in fact the answer required.

Sharpe managed 265 games for United across eight years and scored 36 goals while winning seven major trophies including three Premier League titles.

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