IT was a morning of mixed emotions for football legend Paul Gascoigne. Yesterday Gazza received a certificate congratulating him for staying “clean and sober” after successfully completing his “detox”; the first stage in an alcohol rehabilitation programme at a Bournemouth addiction treatment centre.

But the moment had already been marred by headlines he had woken up to claiming he had groped a shop assistant at a Boscombe chemist’s shop after falling off the wagon.

A national tabloid newspaper also claimed that the ex-England, Tottenham Hotspur and Newcastle United ace had asked a window cleaner to buy him two cans of Stella after they had bumped into each other in the street.

In a bid to put the record straight Gascoigne, 43, agreed to speak exclusively to the Daily Echo at the Providence Projects clinic in Boscombe.

• See Wednesday's Echo for the Gascoigne interview