The truth about snus: Why one in five footballers are putting nicotine pouches in their mouths - as experts reveal what it really does to your body

They may be super fit, health-conscious athletes put on strict diets. In fact almost one in five male professional players in the UK is now taking nicotine orally – either in tobacco-free nicotine pouches or Swedish-style snus, which look similar but contain tobacco – according to a study published this week by Loughborough University, commissioned by the Professional Footballers' Association. Yet the figure was around zero only five years ago, when these nicotine pouches first became available in the UK. Cheap and easier to get hold of than vapes Nicotine pouches are entirely legal and readily available across the UK for a relatively small cost of around £6 for a container of 20 pouches. Snus is placed under the lip, for between five minutes and an hour, to release nicotine through the gum into the bloodstream Praveen Sharma adds: 'Our advice to patients is that, if they are a smoker who's using tobacco-free nicotine pouches to stop smoking, that's OK because it's less risky than smoking.