Former Millwall and Crystal Palace stalwart Matt Lawrence has bravely opened up on his near-death experiences while battling a severe drug addiction.Lawrence enjoyed an career in the EFL spanning nearly 20 years, making over 600 appearances for the likes of Fulham, Millwall and Palace.Lawrence captained Millwall in their first ever FA Cup Final appearance in 2004GettyBest known for his six-year spell at the Den, the ex-defender captained the Lions in the 2004 FA Cup final against Manchester United.In 2006, Lawrence moved across south London to rivals Palace – then under the ownership of talkSPORT’s Simon Jordan.He would spend four years at Selhurst Park, featuring 135 times in all competitions before a stint at Gillingham between 2010 and 2012.But after hanging up his boots in 2015, Lawrence struggled to cope with the transition and battled with a crippling drug addiction.This culminated in him technically dying twice in the space of four days in March 2021 after the cocaine he bought in New York was laced with a fatal dose of fentanyl, which the 52-year-old revealed in a recent interview with the Daily Mail.Lawrence shares addiction storyHaving now been sober for over a year, Lawrence sat down with Jim White and his former chairman Jordan to bravely share his story.The former EFL star admitted he had been unable to cope with the end of his playing career and the structure it provided him.Lawrence told White and Jordan: “When football stopped, life stopped for me almost. And I don’t think that’s being melodramatic either, it did.“I very much enjoyed the structure, the regimentation. I was a student first, and then I was a footballer. And all of those times, you have a timetable.”He continued: “I made a very foolish mistake of, because I’d been to university, because I had a degree, I thought that I was going to be smart enough to just do okay without a plan.Lawrence played for Crystal Palace between 2006 and 2010 – departing in the same year Jordan left Selhurst ParkGetty“I didn’t have a plan.”Sharing how his struggles then spiralled into addiction, Lawrence revealed this began with alcohol before he began to suffer with drug abuse too.He explained: “I very much got dictated to by drugs and alcohol for probably a decade of my life, until 423 days ago when I got clean and sober. “But first I fell into alcohol, and then with alcohol came cocaine. And then the cocaine controlled me. “I was, again, stupid but smart. I thought I’d be able to control my habits. And as so many addicts, it’s very, very hard, if not impossible, to control habits and they get a hold of you.”‘The priest gave me the last rites’As mentioned, the darkest point of Lawrence’s addiction came five years ago in Manhattan, when he ingested cocaine that turned out to be laced with deadly synthetic opioid fentanyl.Lawrence opened up his addiction struggles and journey to recoveryNarcan, a brand name for naloxone, an emergency drug used to combat the effects of opioids, was able to help save his life on two occasions, as the same sequence of events happened twice within days of each other.Lawrence revealed that while his near-death experiences initially prompted to get sober, the road to recovery has been a long one.He told talkSPORT: “In 2021 I died twice within the space of four days. It was March 17th, 2021, and then March 21st, 2021. “And that in itself, me saying it out loud, is a help because I haven’t been able to really – I’ve been able to compartmentalize it. It didn’t happen to me. “Because I passed out, because I stopped breathing, and I was resuscitated, and I got injected with Narcan and taken to hospital, I wasn’t aware that I had died twice. “When I came out of the hospital, I looked fine. I felt fine. I had got shocked. I did get sober for six months, but then I just got back on that sort of carousel wheel of the same destructive personality and destructive traits. Lawrence opened up his addiction struggles and journey to recoveryGetty“And it’s only been recently that I’ve got clean, and it’s been hard work. It’s been the hardest thing I’ve ever done.”Explaining just how touch-and-go things were in his a second drug-induced near-death experience, Lawrence revealed he was even given his last rites before he was saved by medical staff.He bravely shared: “I was in the pub having a drink after work, and the person that I was with, the owner of the bar is a Catholic, and I knew the priest.“The priest gave me the last rites, which is as close as you can get without seeing the light at the end the tunnel, and somebody welcoming you in, whoever you believe in.“So I got issued with the last rites and lived to tell the tale.”Now 423 days sober, Lawrence shared an uplifting message to listeners, as he vowed to do his utmost to continue this way. Rounding off, he said: “I know that today I’m 423 days clean and sober and tomorrow I will be 424. But I can’t really look a great deal further than that. “I can’t possibly sit here to anybody listening or to you guys and say, ‘I’ll come on the show next year and I’ll be sober then’ – I can’t say that.“But I will try my damnedest to be clean and sober in the years to come.”