Ex-England goalkeeper David James, 53, spearheads NHS quit smoking campaign as he reveals his 20-a-day habit meant he ‘couldn’t run two laps’ during peak of his career

Ex-England goalkeeper David James is urging Brits to quit smoking in a bid to deter the next generation from taking up the killer habit. 

Spearheading a new NHS drive, the legendary Liverpool, Portsmouth and West Ham shot-stopper, 53, admitted just one cigarette got him addicted for 15 years. 

James, who won 53 international caps in a career which spanned three decades and saw him amass 572 Premier League appearances, revealed smoking left him unable to run two laps of an athletics track. 

He admitted that his 20-cigarette a day habit had a ‘huge impact on my health and performance at the time’, boldly confessing: ‘I wish I never started.’ 

James, who used to light up on the team coach and before games as part of his pre-match ‘ritual’, said: ‘Even though I was anti-smoking, literally one cigarette got me addicted for 15 years.

‘Smoking had a massive impact on my performance. I couldn’t run two laps of an athletics track.’ 

James, who gave up at the turn of the century after falling victim to peer pressure as a teenager, added: ‘I smoked for about 15 years, and at the time it was normal.

‘My mum smoked, my friends smoked, it was around me. It didn’t take long for me to be hooked.

‘Looking back, it had a huge impact on my health and performance at the time, I wish I never started.

‘My health, my children and my fans were huge motivators for me to quit — I didn’t want younger people to see me smoking and think it was OK.’

‘My children did smoke. It’s not surprising because they saw their father smoke.’

‘The good thing is they also saw their father give up cigarettes so now they are ex-smokers. I think as a role model for my children I had to give up smoking.

‘I can’t ask them to do one thing with me conducting myself in a different way. My advice to anyone who is smoking and especially those who might have children in the household is; I am proof that you can quit. 

‘And my children, they’re proud of me. What more do you want?’ 

Father-of-four James, whose mother used to smoke at the dinner table, also admitted earlier this year that he ‘drank until 3am’ when he first joined the England squad. 

Chatting to his former boss Harry Redknapp on the 76-year-old’s podcast, he said: ‘Peter Taylor [former England football coach] was the first one to take me for a warm up.

‘It was weird: “we are going to go out for a warm up.” He put me through my paces.

‘I thought “hang on a minute. I’m knackered.” The fact that I smoked 20 fags a day didn’t help.’

He added: ‘Things change. We used to meet up in the England squad back in the early 90s and the first thing you’d do is meet the whole staff in the bar down at Burnham Beeches.’

James is spearheading the Department of Health campaign, which is encouraging smokers to attempt to quit smoking in January.

Smoking rates in the UK are now the lowest on record, at 12.9 per cent — or around 6.4million people.  

But smoking kills around 70,000 people every year through diseases such as lung cancer and coronary heart disease. 

Thousands more live with illnesses caused by their habit.

Smoking also costs the economy around £17billion a year through lost productivity and knock-on effects to the NHS, officials estimate.

England’s chief medical officer Professor Sir Chris Whitty said: ‘Smoking causes many serious diseases that affect people throughout their lives.

‘Stopping people becoming addicted to smoking and helping those who have been addicted to quit are two of the most important measures we can take to improve health.

‘Quitting will improve your health whatever your age and no matter how long you have smoked. It’s never too late to stop.’

Under bold proposals outlined in the Kings Speech last month, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak promised to create a ‘smoke-free generation’.

If passed, it will mean kids born after 2009 will never legally be able to buy tobacco.

Andrea Leadsom, public health minister, said: ‘Smoking is the biggest preventable killer in the UK and places a huge burden on our NHS.

‘No other consumer product kills up to two-thirds of its users. That’s why we need to act now to prevent our children from ever lighting one.’

It comes as research by scientists at Imperial College London shows that teenagers are more than three times as likely to smoke if their parents, caregivers, or friends do. 

Professor Nick Hopkinson, a respiratory medicine expert at Imperial College London, said: ‘We know most people who smoke start as teenagers, and taking up smoking at a young age is linked to a greater risk of health problems later in life.

‘Our research shows that the influence of family and friends is a significant driving force in young people taking up cigarettes in the first place, making them more than three times as likely to start smoking if their parents, caregivers or friends do.

‘We must do what we can now to ensure our children are the first smokefree generation.’

The 7,000 chemicals in tobacco — including tar and others that can narrow arteries and damage blood vessels — are thought to be behind some of the damage smoking inflicts on the heart.

Meanwhile, nicotine — a highly addictive toxin found in tobacco — is heavily linked with dangerous increases in heart rate and blood pressure.

Smoking also unleashes poisonous gases such as carbon monoxide, which replaces oxygen in the blood — reducing the availability of oxygen for the heart.