Former Everton ace says he caught STI in Malta

It was the end of the 1987/88 football season and Pat Van Den Hauwe was a star at league champions Everton. He was supposed to play in Malta with Wales, but had trouble with a hamstring so he “sneaked out to visit the local hospitality.”

Van den Hauwe says he had an amazing night “with a local lady who was quite happy to show me some Maltese delights”.

But it seems that the “Maltese delights” were the beginning of a slippery slope that saw the player sink into drug and alcohol addiction, according to The Sun.

Van den Hauwe recalls that when he returned home from Malta, he was suffering from pain and a burning sensation when he went to the toilet.

“Within hours I was in hospital with a non-specific urethritis, causing inflammation of the urethra,” he said, adding that the following morning he couldn’t even put any weight on his ankle.

“They told me that whatever this woman in Malta had passed on to me, it had got into my blood and found its way to my ankle. It could have ended my career,” Van den Hauwe said, whilst pouring his heart out to the tabloid paper.

Following the incident, the footballer spent a month in hospital and was out of action for a further three.

But it seems the player did not learn his lesson not to sleep around …

Everton had provided Van den Hauwe with a nurse to take care of him, but the nurse had helped him sneak out of the hospital he was receiving treatment in.

"One night she sneaked me out of hospital to a pub. I was soon drunk and ended up falling off the bar stool. So the nurse got me out of there having decided to really look after me.

"She took me back to her place and sorted me out in every way imaginable. If the club had found out, we'd have been sacked. That's how out of control I was. I didn't care - looking back, that makes me feel ashamed."