Neil ‘Razor’ Ruddock has spoken out about his dramatic weight reduction journey following gastric sleeve surgery last year.
The ex-England player, 54, revealed his weight crept up to 27 stone during lockdown, but he has now shed almost six thanks to the procedure, which he claimed has ‘saved [his] life’.
The I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! contestant underwent surgery in September last year after being inspired by Towie’s James ‘Arg’ Argent, who shed 13 stone after undergoing the same procedure in May 2021.
‘After years of struggling with my weight, I decided it was finally time to take action,’ the star wrote on Twitter.
‘Last year I had gastric sleeve surgery with @WeAreTransform_ & I’m well into my weight loss journey, to date I’ve lost 93lbs. This is a fresh start & I’m excited about this new chapter.’
Neil told MailOnline that Covid was a “significant contributor” in his weight increase, recalling “sitting on my bottom at home becoming bigger and heavier” after “struggling” in the epidemic.
‘I got lazier,’ he recalled, as he explained: ‘I was eating loads and loads of takeaways, making bacon sandwiches just for something to do.
‘It really didn’t help when they brought out Uber Deliveries, I was getting ice cream delivered from Co-op… it’s f****** madness.’
At his heaviest, the ex-Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur defender ‘feared for [his] life,’ and attributed the procedure and subsequent weight loss with saving his life.
‘The way I was going, who knows how long I could continue like that,’ he said.
Earlier in 2019, Harry Redknapp advised Neil to seek medical attention when he appeared to be suffering while shooting Harry’s Heroes with other football stars.
Following blood tests which revealed he could drop dead any moment, Neil described himself as a ‘heart attack waiting to happen’.
You got this, Razor.
Source My Celebrity Life.