Collingwood president Eddie McGuire says he was affected by prescription drugs when he made offensive comments about Sydney AFL great Adam Goodes.

Speaking on his breakfast radio program in 2013, McGuire said the Indigenous Goodes should be used to promote the musical King Kong, only a matter of days after the dual Brownlow medallist had been racially abused by a Magpies fan.

“I haven’t really said this before, but I was on massive painkillers and crutches [for] an infection in my knee,” McGuire told GQ magazine. “I was on heavy-duty painkillers, antibiotics and steroids.”

McGuire, 51, apologised to Goodes, but the incident caused ongoing damage to the relationship between the two men.

“He said he didn’t know if he could be my friend again and that’s his prerogative,” said McGuire. “I’d like to think that we would be, one day, and that I prove worthy to him.”

McGuire also received widespread condemnation last month for saying he would pay $50,000 to see leading Fairfax Media journalist Caroline Wilson stay under a pool of iced water.