Gambling pushed Stoke City's Etherington to loan sharks

Stoke winger Matthew Etherington, who reportedly lost £1.5 million at the height of his gambling addiction, has revealed he would turn to loan sharks when his money ran out.

Etherington, who began gambling as a young player at Tottenham, admitted to betting £40,000 a month on greyhounds, horse racing and poker.

He finally received help in September 2009 when he moved to Stoke and his family staged an intervention.

Etherington told BBC Radio 5 live's Breakfast: "It just snowballed... I was frequently spending my month's wages and then borrowing money off loan sharks and towards the end it got very, very bad."