In a new biography Tyrone GAA star Cathal McCarron says he “blackened his soul” by appearing in gay porn film to feed his gambling addiction.

The 28-year-old writes that he appeared in the film after responding to a newspaper advert looking for ‘male models’.

“The company was based in a fancy office block in north London and looked like a legit model agency. It didn’t take me long to discover it was something more,” he says.

“They were a porn company. They enquired if I’d be interested in some work.

“The money was an obvious appeal, but the risk was still too great. They sold it to me on the basis that they only dealt with US hotels, where the porn was exclusive to the hotels’ pay-per-view channels.

“Anyone in their right mind knows that uploaded material can appear anywhere, but I wasn’t in my right mind. I accepted the offer of some work.”

He assumed he would appear in pornography with women, and was initially against taking part in gay pornography. However, he eventually agreed when he was offered £3,000 in cash.

“As we had sexual intercourse, I did everything to suppress my real emotions, to dislocate myself from the moment. All I was thinking about was the money I was going to receive afterwards.

“When the filming was over I felt physically sick, disgusted that I had allowed myself to sink into such an abyss of degradation and humiliation.

“As soon as I was handed a brown envelope with £3,000, that feeling began to dissipate. I walked across the road into a betting office and gambled away half of my earnings.”

He gambled the rest of the money the next day.

When the film became public and made newspaper headlines, McCarron said he considered suicide.

“I had sold my body. I had blackened my soul. All for just two days gambling,” he said.

Since then McCarron has worked on his addiction and made a successful return to the football field in the Tyrone senior team. He is also studying to be a counsellor as a way to help others with similar addicitons.

“Becoming so involved in counselling is as much to help me as anybody else,” he says. “It keeps me right. It keeps me in the loop.”

Cathal McCarron’s autobiography Out of Control: How My Addiction Almost Killed Me and My Road to Redemption, is released on October 20