David James admits he reached a whopping 17-stone whilst at Liverpool as a lack of game time and fitness regime hit him hard.
The former Premier League goalkeeper spent seven seasons at Anfield having joined them in 1992 from Watford. Initially, the England international went in as No 1, but was dislodged in the 1993/94 season as veteran Bruce Grobbelaar re-established himself on Merseyside.
James fell out of favour when Graeme Souness was in charge and there was a lack of a fitness programme in place which meant the goalkeeper piled on the pounds and he failed to regain his role until Souness opted to leave Anfield.
He told William Hill : "I reached 17 stone, we didn’t have a fitness regime, and I was fat. The frustration was that I wasn’t playing to a level I felt I should be playing at. I’m not going to say that I should have been the best goalkeeper in the world, but I can’t think of anything that another goalkeeper has done that I couldn’t do.
"I was then out of the team for eight months in my second season – I was actually sent off at the end of the first season against Norwich, so I missed the first game of the next season and never made it back into the side under Graeme Souness."
Roy Evans was quick to get James back into the starting XI however, and the shot-stopper enjoyed a successful spell. He claimed the League Cup shortly after and was named in the Premier League Team of the Year, which later led to England recognition.
James would leave Liverpool in 1999 to join Aston Villa, where he spent two seasons. The now 52-year-old also played for West Ham, Manchester City and Portsmouth, where he won the FA Cup in 2008. He dropped down to play for Bristol City and Bournemouth later in his career before spells in Iceland and India.
The 53-cap former England star has revealed how a drunken night out led to his exit from Anfield and he talked then Villa owner Doug Ellis into lodging a bid for him. Mark Bosnich had just left Villa Park and James joked about how he was the best shotstopper in the league.
"Villa came in. I said yes straightaway. The contract negotiations were interesting, they didn't offer me as much as I wanted. But I was like, 'It doesn't matter, I just want to play'," he previously told Stadium Astro.
