"I had four touches and I fouled Paul Scholes," says Kevin Ellison about his one and only Premier League appearance for Leicester City at Manchester United in 2001. The forward had been rejected by his hometown team Liverpool and was working on a building site as well as delivering furniture, while playing for non-league Altrincham, before landing a dream £50,000 move to Leicester 25 years ago. A month later Ellison, then aged 22, was sharing a pitch with Roy Keane, Ole Gunnar-Solskjaer and Scholes after being sent on as an 84th-minute substitute at Old Trafford.
Ellison never played in the Premier League again. A few years later depression took over as he struggled with family problems, while he had gone from signing a two-and-a-half-year contract with the Foxes to dropping back down the leagues and worrying about finances. "The darkest moment was when I was driving on the M6," Ellison recalls.
"I remember it like it was yesterday. My thoughts back then were: 'would people's lives around me be better if I smashed my car into the central reservation at 100mph?' That's how deep it got. "Speaking out to those around me and seeking help [counselling] is the only way I got through those dark clouds that came over me.
I'm grateful for what I've been through as it's opened my eyes to a lot of things in life." Now aged 47, Ellison is healthier and happier. Incredibly, he is still playing for Cheshire-based non-league club Vauxhall Motors, and will become one of the oldest players to feature in the FA Cup if he appears against Yorkshire side Thackley in the preliminary round on Saturday ( ). "Everyone says I should be in a nursing home," laughs Ellison, who has played in all top eight tiers of English football and is one of the few players to reach the 1,000-game milestone in a memorable career spanning 29 years and 18 different clubs.
"I've lost count, if I'm honest, on the exact number of games I've played. But I've still got that fire in my belly and I still get a little bit nervous before games. "I'm still here, playing at 47.
I'm grateful for that." Ellison grew up in the suburb of Anfield, about a five-minute walk from Liverpool's famous ground. He represented Liverpool schoolboys as a youngster, as well as playing for the club's centre of excellence alongside Michael Owen and Steven Gerrard. As a child, he would walk the short distance to Liverpool's ground on matchdays and stand outside the Kop, waiting for stewards to open the gates 20 minutes from the end of games to allow fans looking to make an early getaway to leave.
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