Stoke City winger Matthew Etherington is grateful to chairman Peter Coates for helping him with gambling debts.
Etherington owes a debt of gratitude, he says, to Coates and former manager Tony Pulis for helping to get his finances in order while he sought expert help to fight his gambling addiction back in 2009.
"Him (Pulis) and the chairman were fantastic," he told The Sentinel.
"I went to them seven or eight months down the line after joining in the January and told them everything that went on.
"They didn't lend me money. They just sorted out a contract. Instead of getting my normal wages every month, they would subsidise that so I got a lump sum to pay off some of the debts.
"I'm debt-free now and looking forward to the rest of my life, and making sure I have a future."
