Drinkwater has insisted it is his choice to work on building sites

Danny Drinkwater has insisted it is his choice to work on building sites after receiving abusive messages which said he'd “hit rock bottom”.

Drinkwater announced his retirement from football in October, having failed to get another club following a loan spell at Reading for the 2021/22 campaign. The 34-year-old midfielder enjoyed an impressive career, starting out at Manchester United before winning the Premier League with Leicester, earning three caps for England and sealing a £35million move to Chelsea.

He was paid £120,000 per week during his time with the Blues yet barely featured, being sent on loan to Burnley, Aston Villa, Turkish club Kasimpasa and Reading. Drinkwater has been open about his mental health struggles, having made headlines for being charged for drink driving and attacked outside a nightclub.

Since stepping away from football he has tried to move into the business world, but The Sun reported in November that he had lost £782,000 from a failed restaurant in Manchester which went under after racking up £2m in debt. He bought a 70 per cent stake in another restaurant which has since closed its doors.

Drinkwater has therefore decided to pursue some more hands-on employment and shared a picture of himself working on a building site with his 585,000 followers. “On site today,” he wrote on a snap which showed him standing in front of some scaffolding.

His career choice prompted some negative comments, which Drinkwater felt the need to respond to. Sharing one which read "F***ing hell Danny you've hit rock bottom", he replied: "Some of these messages, behave. I love being on site grafting! It's a choice."

Drinkwater is still trying to find his way after football, having admitted that deciding to call time on his career was a difficult process. “Anyone who thinks earning good money will solve all of your problems is not true at all,” he said last year. “Mental health is more important than physical. It was the darkest I'd ever felt.”

Speaking about his retirement on the High Performance Podcast in October, he said: "I think I've been in limbo for too long, I've either been wanting to play but not getting the opportunities to play at a level where I felt valued. I just thought I'm restless here for no reason, I'm happy not playing football, but I'm happy playing football, so do I just shake hands with the sport?

"It's all I've known, it's been my life since I was six or seven, it was never going to be an easy thing. I think the way it's died down has definitely helped. If I was playing week in, week out and had to stop through injury or age I think it would be trickier. I've had quite a few offers from Championship clubs, but I never felt the burn, it did nothing for me."