Former England midfield maestro Paul Gascoigne is being quizzed by police after he was arrested on suspicion of being drunk in charge of a vehicle.

The 42-year-old former Newcastle United and Tottenham Hotspur midfielder, who has faced a long battle with alcoholism and depression, was taken into custody on Sunday night along with an unnamed man after police were called to a disturbance at a takeaway in Leeming Bar, North Yorkshire.

A North Yorkshire police spokesman said: "At 9.10pm on Sunday, officers from North Yorkshire police were called to a disturbance at a takeaway at Leeming Bar.

"Following inquiries, two men, aged 42 and 40 from the Newcastle area, were arrested on suspicion of being drunk while in charge of a motor vehicle.

"They were taken into custody for questioning and remain there."

Gascoigne, who was sectioned three times under the Mental Health Act in 2008, has described how when he hit rock bottom he was taking cocaine and drinking a litre of gin a day, which left him delusional and afraid to leave his room.

The former England hero, who played at Newcastle, Spurs, Lazio, Rangers, Middlesbrough and in China, went public about his continuing battle with addiction in March last year.

He told BBC Radio 5 Live's Victoria Derbyshire he had been clean of drink and drugs for four months, working the 12 Steps Programme and attending Alcoholics Anonymous.

But in December last year, he was handed a fixed penalty notice for being drunk and disorderly after being arrested in Newcastle.
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