Source: Daily_Mail
MATT LAWTON TALKS TO ROBERT GREEN: West Ham's self-deprecating keeper on being England's No 6 - and
When you have suffered from severe altitude sickness, the heady heights of international football do not appear half as terrifying.
Robert Green, West Ham's goalkeeper and now favourite to start for England in next month's World Cup qualifiers in the absence of the injured David James, regards his climb to the summit of Kilimanjaro last summer as his finest achievement. He completed it half a step at a time while trying, in vain, to control his bodily functions, and found it so tough it took him longer than the petite Cheryl Cole or the rather tubby Chris Moyles when they followed him up Africa's highest peak in March.
'You set off at midnight in the hope of reaching the summit by sunrise,' says Green. 'I got there at about lunchtime, in a real mess. Some people suffer from altitude sickness, some don't. I live by the Thames and I train at sea level. I guess I'm used to sucking in lots of oxygen. It hit me hard. I was delirious, and by the time I made my way back down I was the best part of two stone lighter.'
Green is a bit deeper than your average professional footballer. He writes poetry, had his own newspaper column and claims to have dozens of different ideas for a novel. He describes the whole Kilimanjaro experience the climb, and the time he spent beforehand with the African Medical and Research Foundation in Kenya as life-changing. It gave him a new perspective, and what he considers a much healthier one. Playing for England? 'At the end of the day it's a game of football,' he says.
