Dub Sub John Leonard ready to embark on new chapter with new book

John Leonard is done with football. Done with sport, in fact.

It seems odd given he has just been named as the inaugural winner of the Setanta Sports Book of the Year for Dub Sub Confidential, a no-holds barred account of life balancing his role as understudy to Stephen Cluxton with the Dublin footballers and a serious drink and drug problem.

It was his dreams of playing for Dublin that first rescued him from the chemical and mental abyss, and they sent him back into it when those aspirations went unrealised, but there was a clear sense as he collected his award that this all marked the closing of that chapter in his life.