Latapy:

"Taken from our P E O P L E section."

RUSSELL LATAPY will play on for another season — but has no intention of reining back his playboy lifestyle to achieve it.

Falkirk star Latapy had been expected to quit at the pinnacle of the game after appearing for Trinidad and Tobago against Paraguay in the World Cup finals.

But the veteran midfielder reckons his body can cope with the demands of one more SPL year.

Latapy, a hero to Bairns fans for his exploits on and off the field — the latter with pal Dwight Yorke — is gearing up for a bigger coaching role at Falkirk and looked set for a quieter life after buying a house in the town.

But he sees no reason to quell his chain-smoking or boozy nights out. He said, “I can still play and contribute but my body is going to decide and right now I feel in decent shape.

“Maybe I’ll play more at the start of the season when the nicer surfaces suit me better. But I definitely want to concentrate more on coaching.

“People talk about what I do off the field but I’ve lived this way all my life. I’ll be 38 next month and I’m probably still going to play so I don’t think my smoking and drinking is really a problem.”

After Trinidad’s World Cup campaign, the team was welcomed home as heroes. Now Latapy finds himself in the laid-back Dutch town of Dwingeloo where the Bairns kicked off a four-game tour with a 16-0 win over the local amateurs.

But Latapy is welcoming the detox break. He said, “The whole of the Caribbean were proud of our efforts in Germany.

“It was six days of non-stop ceremonies and you know how these things go — you have a beer, then you have another and then you end up thinking, ‘okay I can have another one’ and so on.”