Trevor Carson on gambling dangers as St Mirren stopper bravely addresses his fight with addiction

Trevor Carson remembers the date as if it were yesterday. He even knows what night of the week it was – a Tuesday.

A night where the St Mirren keeper walked through the doors of a non-descript hall in Gloucester, sat down with a dozen strangers and made the greatest save of his life. A night where he saved himself from the hell of a gambling addiction that had run out of control and destroyed everything around him.

Seven and a half years on the 35-year-old Northern Ireland international still has an itch and believes he always will have. But it’s one he knows he can never scratch. Carson told Record Sport : “I am almost eight years off gambling but I know I’m only one bet away from starting again. They say you’re an addict for life and that’s true. I couldn’t just do a bet on the Grand National for example. That would be me. If I did that one bet it would be spiralling out of control again.”

The Saints No.1 doesn’t shout from the rooftops about an addiction that cost him his marriage, his self-esteem and almost his career. He is not evangelical about the dangers of gambling but he is more than willing to put his head above the parapet to use his experiences as a way of trying to steer young players, in particular, down a different route.

Carson added: “I don’t preach to the boys at St Mirren because I don’t like when people do that to me. I hate it. If someone throws it in your face it isn’t something I like.

“I don’t want to say to someone who is having a bet that they shouldn’t do it. But I’ve been off gambling for eight years and I’ve been in dressing rooms and I’ve seen some red flags with some boys. I’ve then spoken to them about it.

“I don’t speak to them about their situation but I talk about my own issues and