Newcastle striker Andy Carroll admits he was so reluctant to join Liverpool in 2011 he wanted to FAIL the medical.
The frontman, then aged 22, switched his boyhood club for the Reds in a £35million deal at the beginning of the decade but failed to live up to his price tag.
Carroll made a frantic deadline day dash to Anfield, first learning about the move on Sky Sports News and then Googling his new teammates on the helicopter journey.
And the Englishman reveals that amid the chaos, he realised he didn’t actually want to leave the Magpies.
“I was injured at the time, and all I’m thinking is, ‘Please just fail the medical’,” Carroll, now 30, told the Daily Mail.
“The minute I got on that helicopter I wanted to come back. I knew it had to happen. Whatever age, I needed to walk back on that pitch and play for Newcastle again.
“I remember leaving here (Newcastle’s training ground) in Kevin Nolan’s car because loads of people were outside. We went to his house and watched it on TV. I was like, ‘I’m not going’. I’d just bought a house, and a cat the day before!
“But then I was told, ‘You’re going’, and that was that.
“I would have rather stayed at the time and all the way to the helicopter I’m thinking, ‘What is happening? What am I doing?’.
“But looking back, and how it shaped me as a player and a person, I would honestly still do it. I probably needed to get out of the city to grow up.”
Carroll has since rejoined the Magpies, making ten Premier League appearances and bagging two assists, although he is yet to score during his second spell with the club.
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