Troubled rugby league star Blake Ferguson has opened up about the gambling addiction that threatened to wreck his career and life.
The controversial Sydney Roosters centre has recently spent time in a rehabilitation centre attempting to overcome the addiction that cost him thousands of dollars.
‘It was one of the best things I have done and I feel great for it,’ Ferguson told Nine.
‘I had a problem and I addressed it.’
Troubled rugby league star Blake Ferguson has opened up about the gambling addiction that threatened to wreck his career and life
The controversial Sydney Roosters centre has recently spent time in a rehabilitation centre attempting to overcome the addiction (pictured with girlfriend Bianca Menniti)
Ferguson has spent the off-season overcoming the addiction, which involved sports outside of rugby league, which is illegal for NRL players to bet on.
He recently signed a one-year extension with the Bondi-based club despite reportedly chasing a long-term deal. It is believed the club didn’t want to commit to the New South Wales star because of his tumultuous past.
The 27-year-old has too often found himself in the headlines for his behaviour off-field than his performances on it.
Ferguson has spent the off-season overcoming the addiction, which involved sports outside of rugby league (pictured with St George Illawarra Dragons star Joel Thompson)
‘It was one of the best things I have done and I feel great for it,’ Ferguson told Nine. ‘I had a problem and I addressed it’
In 2013, Ferguson and former teammate Josh Dugan infamously posted an image to Instagram showing them drinking vodka cruisers on a roof while skipping a team recovery session.
Dugan was sacked and joined St George Illawarra, before they were reunited a few months later in the New South Wales Origin camp.
Hours after the announcement they had both made the team, the pair were celebrating in Cronulla, a night that would nearly end Ferguson’s career.
Ferguson was charged and convicted of indecently assaulting a woman at the 2230 nightclub, and subsequently stepped down from rugby league indefinitely.
Earlier this year, in the lead-up to the deciding State of Origin game in Brisbane, Dugan and Ferguson reportedly drove 80 kilometres south of the team’s Kingscliffe base to a pub where they embarked on an eight-hour drinking session.
Other New South Wales players chose to spend the day off, just five days from the decider, playing golf or relaxing.
In October, police were called to Ferguson’s home in Sydney’s inner-west after another former teammate, Paul Carter, made a Triple Zero call concerned for the safety of his children.
Carter feared Ferguson’s children had potentially ingested drugs, claims that were later denied to Daily Mail Australia by his lawyer, Adam Houda.