The Newcastle striker has been angered by reports throughout his career as he works to get back to full fitness following his Magpies return.
Newcastle striker Andy Carroll has hit out at media "lies" which he feels gave him a bad reputation, and insists he is doing his utmost to get back to full fitness.
Asked by Newcastle's official website if he reads about himself, he said: "I used to years ago, and then there was so much press, bad press, and I just was like, ‘I can’t even be bothered with it’, because most of it is lies.
“There was one (story), I think it was last season, that I got injured trying to climb over a balcony drunk on pre-season with West Ham, and I fell off the balcony and got injured. In the paper! I’m like, what am I even reading this for? It’s a load of ********.
“I won a game of table tennis, jumped on the table, landed, smashed the table and rolled my ankle and I’m injured. What? So I just stopped reading everything.
“It’s not my fault,” he added of his injury problems. “I don’t want to be sitting in the gym by myself doing rehab. I want to be outside doing what I love to do, playing football and being with the lads. I’ve been out of it for so long, and I don’t want to be like that.
“People think you’re getting paid so it doesn’t matter. No – that’s not the case. I haven’t come into this job to get paid. Yeah, it pays well, but I’ve come into it because I love it – there’s a difference.
"I don’t love being in the gym. Everyone that knows me knows I hate the gym, it’s the worst thing ever. I want to be outside.
" I’m working my b*llocks off to get fit and I was working my b*llocks off when I was injured as well. It’s non-stop.”
“I’d be getting phone calls in London saying, ‘you’re out, and you’re drinking this’. No – I’m in a restaurant with my family. ‘Well you’ve been spotted’. Yeah, I’ve been spotted in there because it’s a restaurant! ‘Yeah, but they sell alcohol, so you must have been drinking’. No – I’m with the kids!
“People just jump on it, thinking ‘oh, Andy’s in the pub’. Yesterday, I went for food with my mate and got a pint of lemonade. I was sitting there and I could see people taking pictures. Because it’s a pint glass, I start getting paranoid with it. I’m drinking lemonade!”
“I was just like, ‘really? Do you need to come over and say that?’ I’m actually talking there nicely, and then he comes over and says that. I’m sat there with my kids. It really annoyed me," he admitted.