Former two-weight world champion Ricky Hatton is to seek help after a newspaper published photos and video footage of the boxer allegedly snorting cocaine.

The News of the World secretly filmed Hatton, who has not fought since being knocked out in the second round of his May 2009 showdown with Manny Pacquiao in Las Vegas, supposedly using “industrial quantities” of the drug during a marathon 10-hour drinking session.

Hatton’s spokesman Max Clifford told talkSPORT yesterday: “The thing is now to sort out the problem, to get him to have treatment and hopefully win this battle.

“I think he’ll be going today (yesterday to get professional help) to talk to the people he needs to talk to. To talk to the people who are experts in these circumstances.

“I think the intention is that he’s going to be looked after and hopefully will listen and find out what they tell him and what treatment they give him.”

The newspaper stated the video footage was captured over several hours at a Manchester hotel two weeks ago while Hatton was on a night out with friend Emma Bowe, 29, the Irish national senior women’s boxing champion.

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