Paul Gascoigne returned from the dead after doctors reset his heart in rehab.

In 2013, the former professional footballer was admitted to a clinic in Arizona because of his alcohol addiction and was in an induced coma for 18 days.

As Gazza "died on the operating table", the doctors put an injection into the ex-attacking midfielder's heart, and they say it kept him alive.

The star - who was capped 57 times - told The Mirror: "Looking back at what happened in Arizona, when I died on the operating table, that was really scary.

"The doctors said they were able to get me back. I came around, and I was doped up to f***. I eventually got on the phone to my family and said, 'It is OK, I am through it, I have recovered.'"

Gazza - who admits his alcohol addiction is the "lowest point" in his life - believes he would have been dead if he had not gone to that clinic in the southwestern region of North America.

He admitted: "I tell you what, if I had gone to any other rehab, I think that I would have been dead. I could not remember much of it afterward.

"When I relapse, I go cold turkey because I want to feel the pain.

"In Arizona, it did scare me, but I did not feel the effects because I was drugged up.

"I stayed for an extra two weeks. I still go back sometimes, even when I am fine, just to remind myself of how bad it was.

"They told me that I had died. I was still wobbly on the drugs.

"I was sedated and in a coma for 18 days, and I came around, and I did not know what day it was."

While Gazza - who has written a memoir called Eight, the number on his shirt for Tottenham Hotspur and Rangers F.C. - was in an induced coma, false claims of his demise were widespread.

And when he returned to Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, North East England, later in 2013, the ex-sportsman caused one woman - who believed he was dead - to think she had seen a ghost.

Gazza - who now lives on the south coast of England - recalled: "I always remember coming back to Newcastle and seeing a woman in the street.

"She stopped and stared at me, she almost fainted. She said, 'I thought you were dead.' I said: 'Of course I am not f****** dead.

"I later found out that people were receiving text messages in stadiums. They were saying that I was dead.

"So the woman looked like she had seen a ghost."