Former Liverpool defender Agger concedes painkiller addiction

Now retired after a top-flight career cut short by injuries, former Liverpool defender Daniel Agger has admitted an addiction to painkillers that marred the tail end of his footballing days.

Following an eight-year tenure with the Reds, Agger made the switch to Brondby in 2014 before compounding ailments ended his career at 31 in 2016. Agger has opened up about the conditions surrounding his retirement, and the Danish international was candid in identifying the reasons.

"I have taken too much anti-inflammatories in my career. I know that full well, and it sucks, but I did stop it (in the end)," Agger told Danish paper Jyllands-Posten, courtesy of the Guardian.

"I am not gaining anything personally from saying this but I can only hope that other athletes do. It could be that others take a pill or two less."

Agger paired those concessions with an admittance that his self-prescribed medicating also was to blame for a falling out with then-Liverpool gaffer Brendan Rodgers. It all came to a head in 2013 after a match against Southampton at Anfield.

"After the game (Rodgers) did not speak to me. Something went wrong. I was the first to admit that it was my fault.

"I apologised but as one of the physios said there was no need to apologise as the other 50 times that I had said that I was ready and played, even if I wasn’t fit, it had been fine."

The painkillers had taken its toll, and the consequences were playing out on the pitch.

"In those games one couldn’t see it but then there was this game, where I could not keep track (of my player)."

The writing was on the wall, and if the performance against Southampton was the beginning of the end for the 75-time capped Dane, his display against Swansea in February 2014 was the last straw. After he and centre-back partner Martin Skrtel were confronted at the half for allowing Wilfried Bony too much time on the ball, Rodgers lambasted the two in front of the team.

"Everyone was quiet but I stood up and said: ‘How can you stand there and say that when we are only doing what you have been going on about all week,'" Agger admits.

"Rodgers looked at me and muttered: ‘Whatever.’" Agger continued, "I was substituted 12 minutes later."