Paul Gascoigne was found ‘battered and bruised’ and arguing with two people outside a seafront Travelodge.
The legendary England midfielder – affectionately known as Gazza – could ‘barely string a sentence together’ when he was spotted outside the Bournemouth budget hotel last Thursday.
He was seen having a heated row with a man and woman who allegedly were trying to take money from the 56-year-old when good Samaritan Terry Swinton stepped in.
The newspaper proprietor, 54, was staying at the hotel when he went outside for a cigarette and saw his ‘hero’ looking worse for wear.
He did not witness a fight but told the pair to ‘do one’ when they tried to grab the £10 he offered Gascoigne to get a taxi home.
Mr Swinton took the former Tottenham midfielder back inside the hotel to ‘sober up’ and sat with him for 10 minutes before leaving him with hotel staff.
Paul Gascoigne, 56, at the England v North Macedonia game in June 2023
Terry Swinton, 54, stepped in to help his ‘hero’ when he saw him having an argument with a man and woman outside the budget hotel
Mr Swinton, from Clerkenwell, London, said: ‘I went downstairs for a fag during the football and immediately recognised who he was.
‘He is a hero of mine, when I saw him I was heartbroken to be honest. Men of a certain age, we all know who he is, we have grown up with him.’
Mr Swinton was staying in the Travelodge Bournemouth Seafront hotel while he was watching Arsenal vs West Ham on December 28.
He claimed: ‘The two people around him were trying to take money off him.
‘I didn’t have any money on me but I went back upstairs to get him some money to get a taxi home.
‘When I went to hand him the money, the man and woman tried to take it and I told them to do one and told Gazza to get inside.’
Mr Swinton sat with Gascoigne for around 10 minutes and said he was ‘physically battered’.
‘He couldn’t string a sentence together he was physically and mentally battered,’ he said.
‘I made sure the two people didn’t take anything off him and went back upstairs to watch the football.
‘When I went up to watch the football I wasn’t interested, I kept thinking of Gazza.
The seafront Travelodge hotel in Bournemouth where Mr Swinton found Gazza in a heated row with a man and a woman
The legendary England midfielder celebrates after the Euro 96 group match win over Scotland
‘I am old school, if you see someone in trouble I would make sure they got home alright.
‘It just so happened to be Paul Gascoigne.’
Mr Swinton believes Gascoigne spent the night in the hotel and was still in the reception when he came down for a morning smoke.
He said: ‘I said good morning to him and asked him how he was feeling.
‘He could still barely string a sentence together.
‘As someone who has grown up with him, I was heartbroken to see him this way.’
Gascoigne publicly battled mental health problems and alcohol addiction following his years on the football pitch.
The England legend even paid £20,000 to have anti-boozing pellets put into his stomach in a bid to stop drinking.
Gascoigne, who made 57 appearances for his country, has been in rehab seven times and was sectioned under the Mental Health Act in 2008 and 2014.
Earlier this year he made a foray into reality television, appearing on Channel 4’s Scared Of The Dark.
The former England star has blown the £20million fortune from his playing career and has been in and out of rehab because of alcohol-related problems since retiring
Speaking about his road to recovery on Good Morning Britain in January 2020, a tearful ‘Gazza’ said he cheers himself up by buying sandwiches for homeless people
In January 2020, he broke down in tears on Good Morning Britain where he told Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid: ‘I had a relapse at Christmas, which I was gutted [about], but I’ve just got back on the straight and narrow again.’
The same month, he told The Mirror: ‘I’ve been to , and spent £20,000 including all the travel, to get an operation that stops me drinking.
‘You get pellets in your stomach and it makes you feel sick if you have too much.
‘It means you can have a beer or a glass of wine and socialise, but you cannot have any more.’
has contacted Gascoigne’s representatives for comment.