Once tipped for greatness like his Everton Academy team-mate Ross Barkley, Gerard Kinsella hit rock bottom with a telephone call from his club Fleetwood Town in February 2013. Kinsella was ordered in and it was confirmed he had failed a drugs test. The anabolic steroid nandrolone had been discovered in his system and once the wheels of justice had turned, he was hit with a two-year ban — the longest punishment for any current professional player in England. But behind the bald facts of a so-called ‘drugs cheat’ is a tragic story of a young player driven to depression and despair by the difficulties he faced trying to achieve his dream.
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Kinsella was once tipped for greatness at Everton's Academy
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Was a team-mate of Toffees and England star Ross Barkley
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Hit with a ban in  2013 after he had failed a drugs test
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Maintains he never deliberately took performance-enhancing drugs
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Recently given green light by the FA to train again with a football club
Having first joined @placeholder at the tender age of seven, Kinsella was held in high regard at the club during his teenage years.