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(Image: Philip Coburn)

Struggling down the stairs on crutches, Alan Hudson leaves the cramped hostel he lives at after becoming ­homeless.

The former England, Chelsea and Stoke City footballer says he has hit “rock-bottom” in a fall from grace which has left him in a dingy room three miles from the Stamford Bridge ground where he used to play.

“I have nowhere to go,” says Hudson, 62, who was once one of England’s finest footballers.

“I have hit rock bottom and I don’t see any way out of it.”

Hudson’s riches-to-rags story is a stark reminder of the turmoil many ex-footballers face when they retire.

In an exclusive interview he tells how his life spiralled out of control after a car accident left him disabled.

And problems with gambling and alcohol have also blighted his life.

Hudson now survives on disability benefits of £100 a week and a paltry £300-a-month pension.

Choking with emotion, he admits the situation left him begging for somewhere to stay.

“The council have put me up in this hostel but because of my legs I can hardly make it up the steps,” he says.

“All I have is my laptop, a shaving bag and my crutches. I haven’t even got a change of clothes.

"There is no towel, no soap and they won’t let my son in to visit.

"Living at this hostel is like being a paedophile and coming out of prison – they want to know your every move.”

(Image: Mirrorpix)

In a pub near the hostel, Hudson, who helped Chelsea to win the European Cup Winners Cup in 1971, traces his woes back to December 1997, when he was hit by a car and left in a coma for 59 days.

To this day he has physiotherapy.

“When I had the accident I was buying a house with my wife,” he says.

“When I came out of the coma I found out that she didn’t want me back home.

"She didn’t fancy pushing me around in a wheelchair.

"My mum said to me that I had better go back to live with her on the World’s End estate in Chelsea.

“You could see Stamford Bridge from the house. It was only yards from where I’d grown up.

"About 18 months later I found out she was dying of cancer. My mum passed away in about 2003 and things got worse from that point.

“Just three days after she died I got a call from the council saying that I’d got to get out.

"I had got a pay-out from the ­accident but someone convinced me to invest it into a property in Cyprus.

"I put in £150,000 and when it went belly up I got less than half of that amount back.

“Things got worse. I stayed with a mate in a pub up in Stoke, but I should have been rehoused.

"It’s of my own doing in one way, but I can’t see why I should have ended up homeless.”

(Image: Getty)

Until last year Hudson was living with his son and young daughter in a studio flat.

But after his son was diagnosed with a mental illness it became impossible to remain there. He went to Kensington and Chelsea council who told him he would have to stay in a hostel.

“It took me over five minutes to get up less than six stairs. I got to the reception and it felt like an episode of Porridge after they’ve let Ronnie Barker out of the nick.

“Then they said to read the rules and regulations. It says you can’t have anyone in your room – well, you wouldn’t want to show anyone your room.

"They’ve got a toilet that I can’t sit down on because of my knees.”

Hudson says he feels betrayed by the clubs he played for.

He says: “I’ve been let down off the field and on the field but yes I’ve also let myself down.”

He also admits he has fallen foul of the demons which blight the lives of many former players.

“I’m a social drinker,” he says. “I can go out on an 18-hour session, but I don’t rely on the drink.

“I love a drink. I like a drop of vodka, I like a drop of whisky. I like pink champagne and when I’m in America I love a drop of bourbon. I was brought up in an age where that was what people did.

“People say to me, ‘Every time I see you you’re in a pub,’ and I say, ‘That’s strange because every time I see you you’re in a pub’.”

Hudson is angry at never being offered a testimonial fundraiser by Chelsea that he thinks would have spared him his present predicament.

Hudson said: “Chelsea have given me absolutely nothing.

"When I was in the coma I was sent thousands of cards from all around the world, but never one from Chelsea.

"When I die they will all be paying tributes, but that will be no good then.

"I mean how many chances does Gazza want? Nobody in football has ever helped me.”

Hudson’s situation has left him bitter at the wages today’s players earn.

“When you look at the money the players are on today, some of them £130,000 a week,” he says.

“At Chelsea I was the fetcher and carrier with greats like Osgood and Cooke around me.

“The most I ever earned was £125 a week. Now that’s not even sandwich money.”