London, Feb 8 : English professional football player John Terry is said to have taken out a 3.95-million-pound mortgage on his 2.25-million-pound home last year.

Terry, 29, who purchased the house in Oxshott, Surrey, in July 2003, has been dogged by rumours of gambling problems, with his friends saying he “doesn’t bet on the scale he did in the past”, reports the Daily Express.

But he still has an account with a bookmaker which friends insist he pays off in full every month.

Sources close to the ex-England captain have said that he does not have cash problems, and that the mortgage had been used to fund other property deals.

It was also claimed on February 7 that married father-of-two Terry paid French lingerie model Vanessa Perroncel, his mistress, 750,000 pounds to buy her silence over their affair, and that he may have paid off other girls.

One report even suggested that his advisers were “throwing money around” to stop ex-lovers talking.

Terry’s unsuccessful legal bid to keep the affair with Perroncel secret cost him at least 100,000 pounds in legal fees. (ANI)