Lizzie Porritt, landlady at the Oddfellows Arms in Seaham, where Gazza was spotted on Thursday, says that he was a perfect gentleman and stuck to orange juice all afternoon.

Lizzie says Gazza enjoyed a quiet afternoon with his good friend Ellie Burdess, who owns Gym 2000, just around the corner from the Church Street pub.

She said: "He came in the pub and bought everyone a drink, but he was drinking fresh orange.

"The stuff about him having an overnight bag carrying clothes and a bottle of gin is rubbish. He had a notebook and a box of cards."

Onlookers said they saw him drinking from another customer's pint, but Lizzie has also dismissed this as rubbish.

Lizzie, who has been landlady at Oddfellows since January, knows Gazza from when he used to drink in The Duke of Seaham.

Gazza lived in Seaham between 1998 and 2000 during a stint with Middlesbrough Football Club.

Lizzie, 45, says Gazza spent about three hours in the pub on Thursday afternoon, enjoying a cheese toastie that she made for him.

She added: "It's all a load of rubbish what they're saying about him. He was just drinking orange juice and keeping himself to himself."

Gazza spent a fortnight in The Priory after an alleged suicide attempt at a London hotel.

Earlier this year he was detained in hospital under the Mental Health Act after an incident at a Newcastle hotel.

Previously, in January 2005, he was hospitalised with pneumonia. He was arrested for an alleged assault on a photographer outside a Liverpool hotel in 2005, the charges were later dropped.

Last year he underwent emergency surgery for a perforated stomach ulcer after being taken ill as he was celebrating his 40th birthday.

An England football star, Gazza used to play for Newcastle United, Tottenham Hotspur, Lazio, Glasgow Rangers and Middlesbrough.

He was sacked after 39 days as manager of Kettering Town in 2005.