Bruce Grobbelaar, a former Liverpool goalkeeper and a military officer has opened up about his past and how football saved him.
Now 60, Grobbelaar was a military personnel in Rhodesia now Zimbabwe in the 1970s during which the blacks clashed with then British colonialist. He admits that the past experiences always give him cold sweats. He also opened up on match-fixing, the Heysel disaster, having a dart thrown at him on the pitch in an exclusive interview with the BBC Sports.
He was conscripted into the army for an 11-month span where he worked as an enemy tracker.
He made 440 appearances for Liverpool and won 13 titles in thirteen seasons at Anfield.
“You’re not the same person once you have done it You have to live with them. The memories have subsided somewhat, but there are times when you are with your mates back in Africa and they particularly like to speak about it (the war). I don’t,” he opened up.
“After that, for about a two or three-week period, I do get cold sweats and wake up with those feelings again.”
The former footballer thanks football for helping him leave the waterfront and to avoid depression.
He joined Vancouver Whitecaps of Canada in 1979 before his switch to Liverpool in 1981. Southampton and Plymouth are other English clubs the Zimbabwean featured for.
“Over the years, I am very lucky that I didn’t submerge into a form of depression because football saved my life really. Once I came out of the military, I had football to fall upon which took my mind off those incidents.” Grobbelaar added