Former goalkeeper Roy Caroll made 72 appearances for the Red Devils between 2001 and 2005, before he went on to play fo the likes West Ham United, Rangers and Olympiakos.
Carroll, who is now Ireland's Dungannon Swifts, has admitted the drinking got worse when he was without a club and not wanted by any club.
"When I had a club, I always had the mind to not drink the day before a game," the 43-year-old told the Daily Mail.
"That was strange – when I stopped playing and nobody wanted me, I was drinking nearly every day.
"I had a lot of time on my hands, my drinking was crazy. If I hadn't stopped, I wouldn't be here today. I don't feel my body would have held up to it.
"I was never at that stage where I would have killed myself. I was quite lucky I wasn't that far ahead. But I would have died from the drink.
"The stuff I was drinking and the way I was drinking it, I wouldn't have woken up one morning. I don't care about alcohol anymore. The first four or five years were very difficult but now I don't need it. I'm mad enough without the drink!
"But the depression will come back once in a while. I'm never going to get rid of it.
"A lot of footballers will be going through it, but they don't come out and say it until they retire. They try to keep it in because it's their livelihood."
