Ex-Manchester United and Sunderland striker Fraizer Campbell has discussed his addiction to snus, the tobacco product, which has become increasingly used by footballers

Former Premier League striker Fraizer Campbell has opened up about how he was addicted to snus throughout his playing career, later struggling to deal with the impact of it.

Campbell made 446 appearances for the likes of Manchester United, Sunderland, Hull and Crystal Palace before retiring in 2022. It was during his three-year stint at Selhurst Park that he admits he was addicted to the nicotine product.

Snus is a smokeless tobacco product made from ground or pulverised leaves, packaged similar to a teabag sachet, which an individual would place under their top lip.

Campbell says he originally took it to wind down after games, but he continued taking it after retirement and that's when he began struggling to deal with some of its effects.

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He said on The Sports Agents podcast: “I felt relaxed, and it just chilled me out more than anything. It was after a game as well, and after a game, it’s one of those things that it’s quite hard to relax after.”

Campbell would concede he became addicted, which the product itself warns of, but always stayed away from them on matchdays in fear of becoming too relaxed. “Well, yeah. I definitely was addicted," he confessed.

"But obviously, when I had more time on my hands when I retired, I had more time to have the snus. So obviously, in the morning, while I was playing, I might have one in the morning or two in the morning and then for the next couple of hours I’d be out on the training pitch.

“I would never have them on a match day because it chilled me out too much, and I was someone that… I’m a pretty chill person as it is. If I was more chilled, I’d struggle to get into a jog.”

Campbell, who says he's now clean, concedes: “It got a lot worse after I finished playing football, but I didn’t really see the negative side of it while I was playing."

The use of snus increasingly common among footballers and former Liverpool and Tottenham midfielder Danny Murphy admitted that he was a regular user after retiring.