When Big John Hartson turned into Cookie Monster for a post-midnight feast

By Robbie Savage

Published 23:01 12/11/09

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I'm hoping to catch up with John Hartson when Wales play Scotland this weekend. Big John is one of my best friends in football and it's brilliant to see photos of him looking for strong and well after some scary moments in his fight against cancer.

I roomed with John for five years while we were Welsh internationals and I'll never forget one night after the squad all met up on a Sunday for a game the following Saturday.

The gaffer gave us a night off with free rein to do whatever we wanted. I ended up going to bed early but Big John went out to meet his family at the Halfway Inn in Swansea.

I'm dozing away happily when I hear the room door go. It's 2.30am. And then there's Big John on the phone to someone. I turn over and try to get back to sleep.

Ten minutes later, the door goes again. It's room service with a can of Coke, a bag of crisps and a whole tray of sandwiches.

I've got my eyes shut, pretending to sleep, but the Coke gets opened, noisily, and drunk - glug, glug glug. Then the crisps are opened, noisily, and there's a a deafening crunch, crunch, crunch. And when he gets to the sandwiches it sounds like Cookie Monster has moved in.

I sit up and say, "John, what the hell are you doing?" And Big John looks back and says, "Sorry Sav - I always like to have a little snack this time of the morning."

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