Football saved me after horrors of war: Grobbelaar

LONDON: Former Liverpool goalkeeper Bruce Grobbelaar has spoken about how football “saved” him after his horrific experiences as a soldier in the Rhodesian army, also recounting the trauma of the Heysel and Hillsborough disasters during his playing days.

The 60-year-old told Britain’s Guardian newspaper in a frank interview that the impact of the fighting in Zimbabwe’s war of independence in the 1970s was such that two soldiers took their own lives when they were told to do another tour of duty.

“They killed themselves simultaneously in adjoining toilets in the barracks. They couldn’t face it,” said Grobbelaar. The goalkeeper, renowned for his eccentricities at Anfield, said football had “saved” him, adding: “It kept me away from the dark thoughts of war.”Grobbelaar told how one of his fellow white soldiers mutilated the bodies of black fighters. “This guy would cut an ear off every man he killed,” Grobbelaar said.