Rio Ferdinand reveals he would drink '10 pints… then move onto vodkas'

Rio Ferdinand has admitted that 'elements of my career are a blur' and that he would sink 10 pints of Guinness after West Ham games before moving onto vodka.

Opening up about the drinking culture that almost derailed his football career before it had really started, the former England defender admits he was a 'lunatic'.

And although he had stopped drinking during the football season by the time he joined Manchester United in 2002, Ferdinand said he would make up for it during the off-season by drinking for two weeks solid.

In an interview with The Guardian, Ferdinand, 40, said: 'I used to get through a load when I was younger. I could probably do eight, nine, 10 [pints of Guinness]. Then I'd move on to the vodkas.

'I could go through loads. I could go all day drinking, then wake up and go again when I was younger.

'I always say to people who ask if I have any regrets about playing, I wouldn't have drunk alcohol.'

Asked if he drunk more than most footballers, Ferdinand replied: 'When I was younger I did. I was a lunatic.

'When I was at West Ham... elements of my career are a blur. People talk about performances and results at certain times in them games and I just sit and nod my head.

'I haven't a clue what they're talking about. I don't remember.'

Ferdinand said he would not drink on a Friday night before a game but would hit the booze hard afterwards.

'Saturday or Sunday. It was a different culture. Crazy. The culture I was in at West Ham was a drinking culture,' he recalled.

'Football and drinks and nightclubs, that's the way it was. And that's the way I lived at the time.'

Ferdinand joined United from Leeds in 2002 for £30million, a record fee for a British footballer and a defender at that time.

It was outside the season Ferdinand would start drinking: 'In the summers I'd drink for two weeks. Bang. Just keep drinking.'

Luckily alcohol did not hinder the abilities of the centre-half, who played 81 times for England.

'Yes, I was lucky. I had a natural ability that could get me through that period of my life. But I got to a point where I had to make a decision to be more professional.'

Camberwell-born Ferdinand rose through the youth ranks at West Ham before making his first-team debut during the 1995-96 season.

He made 158 appearances for the Hammers before joining Leeds in 2000 in a deal worth £18m, also a British record fee at the time.

While at Manchester United, Ferdinand won six Premier League titles, two League Cups and the Champions League in 2008.