FORT MYERS, Fla. - He was the poster boy for bad behavior last year. In a season of Red Sox woes, nobody sunk lower than John Lackey. Early in the season, Lackey told us, “everything in my life sucks right now,’’ and then things got worse.

Lackey went 12-12 with a hideous 6.41 ERA. His wife battled cancer. He appeared to be showing up his teammates and his manager. He became withdrawn. He called out the media on the night of his final start in New York. After the season imploded in Baltimore, he was outed as one of the ringleaders of the “chicken-and-beer’’ brigade. He underwent Tommy John surgery and was ruled out of the 2012 season. He got divorced.

He never talked about any of it. Always a stand-up guy and a clubhouse leader in eight seasons with the Angels, Red Sox Lackey came off as a reclusive athlete who hates Boston.

Despite all of the above, he chose to rehab with the Red Sox this year. He’s in the clubhouse every day, doing his work, talking only to teammates and clubbies.

Monday morning, in a near empty clubhouse at JetBlue Park (the Sox bus already had left for Clearwater) Lackey agreed to answer a few questions.

He said his rehab is going well.

“It feels better than it did last year when I was throwing,’’ he said. “My doctor doesn’t want me to pitch this year. He says it was pretty messed up and doesn’t think it would be good for me.’’

What will it be like being on the sideline for the entire season?

“It’s going to be different for sure,’’ he said. “It’s the first time it’s ever happened to me, so I don’t know what to expect. I’m just going to kind of hang out, work hard, and support the team a little bit. I still want to be around the team. Still want to be around my buddies and support these guys and help them have a good year.’’

He said he would like to be with the team on most road trips.

Lackey is in the third season of a five-year, $82.5 million contract. He said he “absolutely’’ expects to be in the Red Sox rotation at this time next year.

Asked about the pain of pitching through an injury last year, he said, “There’s certain ways they could help me out with the pain on my start night. But on the days in between I wasn’t feeling so good, I’ll just say that.’’