World Cup winner turned to new sport after brain injury, divorce and bankruptcy sent him to rock bottom
Former England rugby star Phil Vickery has revealed bodybuilding has been a huge help after feelings of 'failure' caught up with him.
The 2003 World Cup winner has endured divorce, bankruptcy and being diagnosed with probable chronic traumatic encephalopathy, with recent scans revea✅ling the brain injury.
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Vickery was forced to retire🌃 from rugby after suffering several neck injuries in 2010.
Fast forward 14 years and he's now competing in body building competitions - and he says the similarities with rugby have brought him feelings of purpose he'd been lacking during his struggles.
"Whatever else is going out in the rest of the world is totally irrelevant when🎃 you walk through those gym doors," he told .
"I needed a challenge, something ou🐻tside my comfort zone, and I thought shall I do 𒁏a bodybuilding show? I was placed third.
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"My genetics are crap, I'm not made to be a bodybuilder, but I loved the process. The pain and the hurt and the suffering to get on stage.
"When you look someone in the eye who has gone through that you think, 'F***ing respect'. It's similar to when I look at another rugby player, 'You're hurt, come here bud, well done'."
He added: "Going through divorce, somebody said, 'Don't let drink become your friend' and that really spooked me.
"I could quite easily see how I could fall into that, so I consciously stayed away from it. Bodybuilding was a good excuse, that final prep, because you're super clean.
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"Covid, the restaurant, bankruptcy, divorce… is it the lowest point of your life? Of course it is. It's your own integrity.
"It's Phil Vickery; honesty, integrity, passion, pride… but you've failed. You can keep playing a game, telling yourself you'll make it work. In the end, it caught up with me.
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"I really struggled with the gym after rugby because I had always trained with a purpose. I enjoy cycling but I've had three neck operations so I can't spend more than an hour on a bike.
"Suddenly you get a little bit bigger and a little bit rounder. Another year, anot𒀰her half a stone.
"Before I knew it, I was 24 stone. A big whopper. You're thinking, 'F****** hell, my knees hurt, my ankles hurt, my shoulders hurt. F****** hell, Phil, come on.'"
Since taking on body building, he's lost six stone and now has washboard abs.
"I'm 18 stone now," he said. "It took me a long time to understand that I need to go to the gym for my own well being, be it physical health or mental health."
Vickery, now 48, also revealed he was recently diagnoꦦse🌠d with a brain injury that clouds his memory on occasions.
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“I kind of knew before I’d even had the scan do🃏ne,” he told .
“I said that to the guy: ‘I know something’s wrong with me’. I didn☂’t💜 want to do anything about it.”
Explaining why he joined the class-action concussion lawsuit against World Rugby, the RFU and Welsh Rugby Union, Vickery added that he wanted to 'secure my future for people who will be there to look after me'.
“I don’t think that’s unreasonable,” he ♕continued. “You know the classic response: ‘You knew what you signed up to’. Well, OK. ✃I didn’t. I don’t remember talking about getting brain damage.
“It’s not about hanging the game out, it’s just about, ‘Right, so the reality is I could possibly be, in a few years’ time, not in a very good way, and will need help and care.'"
Vickery isn't the only 2003 World Cup winner who has struggled with life post-rugby.
St🐻eve Thompson shares the impact Dementia has had on his life
His former teammate, Ben Cohen, joined Vickery on talkSPORT's White and Jordan show earlier this week.
Cohen revealed on air that he had to sell his World Cup medal to keep himself afloat financially during the Covid♔-19 pandemic.
Vickery was fighting back tears as his pal made the admissi▨on, which he had no idea about before the pair entered the studio.
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Cohen and other members of England's victorious World Cup squad have come together to launch a charity titled Champions 2003, aimed at helping sportspeople prepare life after retirement form competitive sport.
Discussing the charity's objective, Cohen said: "It's to highlight some of our struggles, to leave a legacy on the back end of sport in general and to give sports people, men and women, a place to land to give them the coping skills and help to transition into civvy street."
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