Former West Ham striker Carlton Cole has revealed that he was tricked into taking Viagra by England team-mates Wayne Rooney and Jermain Defoe, leaving him "running with three legs" during a training session.
Cole, who turned 43 on Monday (October 12), made his England debut as a substitute in a 2-0 friendly defeat against Spain in February 2009. He failed to score for his country in seven appearances, but his time on international duty was certainly eventful.
The Viagra Prank
Speaking on the In The Mixer podcast, brought to you by Sky Bet, Cole blamed Rooney and Defoe for the incident. He said: "I was away with England. I actually forgot about this before speaking with Jermain Defoe. He was part of it, he's a wrong 'un! He spiked me basically."
Cole explained that the squad used to receive supplements with their food in the morning. "So Wayne Rooney, he put something down that I didn't know, it was this little thing," he said. "He goes, 'Oh, take that as well. That's the new one.' It was blue."
Cole took the pill without suspicion, but soon noticed his team-mates laughing. "It's only until [I'm] like, 'Why is everyone laughing?' And everyone's going, 'Well, that was Viagra that you took. That blue pill.' I was like, 'Oh, serious?'"
Running with Three Legs
Cole, who scored 51 Premier League goals over 13 seasons, said he had never heard of Viagra at that point in his life. He described the prank as "bang out of order" but refused to let it disrupt his training session.
He continued: "But obviously, how am I supposed to even know? Who's come to training with a Viagra pill anyway? Like, what are you doing? And then you give it to me. Like, it's bang out of order. Anything could have happened, you know? And a lot did happen that day at training. Nice to see you. Nice to say that I was probably the quickest on the pitch, yeah. So I was running with three legs."
Career Highlights
Cole was enjoying the pinnacle of his career with West Ham when then England manager Fabio Capello selected him for the squad. He achieved a personal best of 12 goals in all competitions during the 2008/09 season, surpassed only by the 15 he scored while in the Championship, when he helped the Hammers secure promotion back to England's top tier three years later.
He later played for Scottish giants Celtic, Sacramento Republic in the United Soccer League and Persib Bandung in Liga 1 in Indonesia, before retiring in 2017. In December 2018, Cole rejoined West Ham to work with the club's academy players, providing support to under-18 coaches, before he was later named loans and pathway manager.
