Zak Hardaker reveals the full story behind his drink driving arrest

At the end of 2017 Zak Hardaker was hit with a 14-month ban from rugby league after testing positive for a banned substance that saw him miss the Grand Final.

As Castleford Tigers parted company, Wigan Warriors gave him an opportunity and as his ban drew to a close everything looked rosy until Hardaker was charged with drink driving.

Speaking on the Fully Game YouTube channel, Hardaker revealed the whole story:

“I was allowed to train three months before my ban was up, so I could train for three months the season before.

“So I moved over there because I was back home and I got done for drink driving, and that was when I’d just signed at Wigan.

“I’d been at the pub and Man U were playing Derby and my mates a Man U fan, we said we’d have a few pints and it went to three pints, four pints, five pints and we were golfing in the morning.

“My clubs were in my car but the game went to penalties and Derby ended up winning so I ended up probably ten pints in. I’ve come out of the pub and seen my car and realised ‘my golf clubs are in there, I’m not leaving them there’.

“That was my thinking, I’m not leaving them there because they’ll get nicked so I jumped in the car and 10 seconds down the road a cop car comes behind me and I got pulled.

“That came out and I got done and Wigan to be fair were really good, they stuck by me and because it was a new club it was the first thing I’d done wrong with them and I think they felt obliged to do it.

“I’ve done it a couple of times, I’ll be honest… I had my mate in the car and I saw these lights behind me come from nowhere so I said to him that I’d indicate left and right and if they followed then I’m going, I’m putting the foot down.

“I was in a Ford Fiesta ST and I don’t know what I was thinking. I turned left right and then put my foot down but there’s bollards at the end of the road, I’ve gone down a one way.

“So I got out of the car and I ran off and ran back home. I got in the shower, brushed my teeth and put my pyjamas on and then the coppers came to my house.

“He’s knocked on the door and asked if I owned a Ford Fiesta and said how they’d found it down some street, so I just look out for where my cars normally parked and ask if it’s alright. I’m going along with it.

“About five minutes into this conversation and there’s four cop cars outside the house and a couple going up and down the street. As I’m ending the conversation another police car pulls up and a man and women gets out and as soon as I saw her I recognised here because they’d got out and tried to chase me.

“They had a little chat and at that point I get arrested for drink driving and she said she’d seen me. So I went and got changed and the night in the cells it was horrendous.

“I think I got breathalysed about an hour and forty after. Obviously you shouldn’t drink drive but in hindsight if I hadn’t gone home and gone somewhere else, I’d have gotten away with it.

“I’m sat in the cells, I’ve just done the ban, just signed at Wigan as one of the biggest clubs in the world on really good money and a four year deal and I’ve just been done for drink driving, run off and  been caught.

“Again it’s just I feel like I’m running into a wall sometimes and I don’t know why I do it to myself.”