Ian Wright: I nearly ruined career smoking marijuana before Palace game

Arsenal legend Ian Wright has revealed he put his career in jeopardy by smoking marijuana the day before playing a match for Crystal Palace. 

Wright, who played for Palace between 1985 and 1991, says he feared for his career when drug testers turned up after a game against West Bromwich Albion shortly after his 21st birthday. 

"I'd been smoking weed since I was about 17, not in a smoke-myself-into-uselessness type of way and I wasn't worried about becoming an addict," Wright writes in his new book, "A Life in Football: My Autobiography," 

"I'm practically paralysed while trying to act unconcerned. The guy says: 'Drug test, No. 9.' Mark Bright. I'm sure he's going to call my number next, No. 10. He calls, 'Drug test, No. 11.' Phil Barber. I sit down -- more or less collapse -- and think, 'Somebody's looking out for me, now I know it!'" 

"What hit me the most is how much I would have been letting people from my area down," Wright wrote. 

"If I had got caught on that drugs test it would have been beyond them, they just wouldn't have understood it: 'What?! You got into Crystal Palace and you didn't stop smoking weed?' 

"From that day to this I never smoked a spliff again."