FA Cup: Ex-Newcastle striker Michael Chopra on gambling addiction and turning his life around

Michael Chopra scored nine goals in 60 Premier League appearances for Newcastle United and Sunderland

"My name is one of the first that pops up when you Google 'professional footballers and gambling addiction', so I've had people reach out to me on social media for help," says Michael Chopra.

The former Newcastle United and Sunderland forward is piecing his life back together since admitting at the height of his addiction he was gambling as much as £20,000 a day and being pursued by loan sharks.

As his addiction worsened, he sought professional help and was admitted to the Sporting Chance clinic set up by former Arsenal captain Tony Adams, who has said football is dealing with a gambling "epidemic".

Ten years down the road, Chopra is turning his life around.

In addition to speaking openly about his addiction in an attempt to help others, he has recently returned from the Maldives, where he spent time with vulnerable young people in his role as ambassador for the Football for Peace foundation.

The veteran of 60 Premier League appearances is also back playing after a six-year absence and is preparing for the extra preliminary round of the FA Cup.

Aged 38, Chopra has joined West Allotment Celtic, a team near Newcastle, who play in the ninth tier of English football and who make the 150-mile round trip to play at Penrith in the world's oldest cup competition on Saturday.

It is the 11th club of Chopra's career - one that has included spells at Cardiff City, Watford (loan), Nottingham Forest (loan), Barnsley (loan), Ipswich Town, Blackpool, Kerala Blasters in India and Alloa Athletic.

As the forward - a 2003 FA Cup semi-finalist with Watford - gets ready to face Penrith, he tells BBC Sport how he now gets fulfilment helping others.

"I will always reach out to someone who needs advice because you don't know what drastic action they might take," adds Chopra, whose addiction got so bad he would set his alarm for 3am so he could place bets on games taking place in South America.

"I want to try to help."

'You have to admit you have a problem'

It is nine years since Chopra told a court how he was targeted by loan sharks during his time at Ipswich.

"They came up to me and asked me for my autograph and said I better get myself into the club and get that money now," the player, a witness in a £750,000 cocaine trial, said at the time.

"They said they knew what car I was driving and they would follow me until I paid them. They said they knew what school my little boy went to and where my parents lived and where I lived in Ipswich.

"I felt sick that I had put my family in that situation from my gambling."

In 2013, Chopra said he had lost about £2m through his addiction that started around the age of 16 and carried on throughout a career spanning more than 400 professional appearances and 121 goals.

"I was a youth-team player at Newcastle earning £70 a week and there were five or six of us who would put £1 or £2 in slot machines at an amusement arcade," he told the Sporting Highs and Lows podcast.

It was at Sunderland when Chopra realised he had a serious issue with gambling

"It helped kill the time while we waited for our bus to take us home. That is where it probably all started."

As Chopra's wages increased, so too did the size of the bets he placed.

"As soon I as turned 17, I was on £500 a week, then £3,500, then £6,000-£10,000 at Cardiff - I doubled my wages at Sunderland, and it started to become a big problem," he added.

"Sunderland sent me to a specialist hospital and I was staying in a hotel around the corner from the hospital. I'd do the classes at the hospital but as soon as I finished I'd go straight into a nearby betting shop because I didn't want to help myself.

"It wasn't really until about 2012 that I really wanted to help myself."

Chopra is open and honest about his past and uses his story to help others.

His direct messages are open to his 35,700 followers on Twitter and the day before this interview, he was contacted on social media by a partner of a footballer worried about their gambling.

"Gambling is such a bad addiction. Deep down in your head it kills you, it really drains you," he says. "You have got to open up and admit you have got a problem. That is the first step in recovery.

"I'm happy I am there for somebody who needs someone to talk to and give my experience."

Using football to help tackle extremism

The Maldives, made up of scattered islands in the Indian Ocean, is known for its sandy beaches and crystal-clear waters, but scratch beneath the surface and all is not as it seems.

"A lot of people think of it as a paradise destination and certain parts of it are, but there is also poverty that tourists don't see," added Chopra, one of the finest footballing talents to emerge from Britain's South Asian community.

"I went to a couple of islands that basically had nothing."

In his role with Football for Peace, Chopra has helped deliver workshops this summer on how football can be used to as a tool to build "resilience to extremism" in the Maldives.

Concerns have been raised in recent years that the Maldives has become a "recruiting paradise" for extremists.

"The locals are very passionate about football," said Chopra. "I was out there to encourage young people to stay on the straight and narrow."

Michael Chopra (left) in the Maldives in June in his role with Football for Peace

'Penrith will be an eye opener'

Asked when he last gambled, Chopra says: "Years ago. You have to take it day by day. This is how I live my life now."

He splits his time between the Netherlands - where he has a family home in Amsterdam - and, after making a return to the football pitch, England.

Spending pre-season with West Allotment Celtic has helped Chopra both physically and mentally. He has shed some of the excess weight he gained after he stopped playing in 2016.

West Allotment Celtic play in Forest Hall close to Chopra's former club Newcastle United

"I've lost about 10 kilos in about two months. The first training session, we ran 5km and I was blowing by the end of it."

At 18, Chopra played against Barcelona at the Nou Camp in the Champions League for Newcastle. Fast forward 20 years, and he is now getting ready to play in an all-Northern League Division One FA Cup tie at Penrith.

"It's going to be an eye opener," he laughs. "I'm used to playing in the FA Cup in January - not at the beginning of August."

If you, or someone you know, have been affected by any issues raised in this article, support and information is available at BBC Action Line.