Ronnie's rolling back into rehab

He has battled with a drink problem throughout his career and even his long-suffering wife admits she can't change his ways.

So it came as no surprise when Ronnie Wood wobbled off the wagon while celebrating his 59th birthday.

But as well as being a notorious boozer, he's also a great battler - and has checked into rehab again in an attempt to beat his addiction.

It is his sixth such visit in recent years, so his face is a familiar one at The Priory, in Roehampton, South-West London, where he is undergoing an intense six-day drying out session.

Sources say the Rolling Stones guitarist is determined to get fit again before the European leg of band's Bigger Bang tour kicks off.

It has already been postponed by more than a month after his bandmate Keith Richards had brain surgery after falling out of a coconut tree during a holiday in Fiji.

Wood had managed to stay off the booze for most of the American dates of the Stones' world tour.

Yet he relapsed very publicly, stumbling out of London's Annabel's nightclub at 3.30am after an alcohol-fuelled birthday party earlier this month.

Fellow guests included Kate Moss, Tracey Emin and snooker player Jimmy White. Friends have since grown concerned as his drinking intensified after the last few days and begged him to check into the clinic, famous for its celebrity clientele.

'His drinking started in earnest again at his birthday party,' said a source close to the band.The news will delight his wife, Jo, a 51-year-old former model, who has made no secret of her dislike of her husband's drinking habits.

'Ronnie knows he has a problem,' she said recently. 'He feels really bad about it. When he goes on one of his vodka benders, I just take a back seat.'

His drinking is also understood to deeply upset his children Leah, 27 and Jessie, 28. His wife added: 'It's Ronnie's problem and he has to deal with it. Of course it's hard. It's awful when he's drinking. But I can't force him to stop.'

Wood checked into The Priory on Tuesday and is expected to stay until Sunday. His spokesman said that he should be fit again for the first night of the European tour, in Milan on July 11.

Wood has a long history of alcoholism and has tried - and failed - to conquer his addiction on numerous occasions.

The musician, who has also battled cocaine addiction, first acknowledged his drink problem in June 2000, when he admitted himself to The Priory for ten days. After coming out, he swore he would reform and even started drinking alcohol-free beer, but within a few weeks he had relapsed.

A failed second spell in The Priory in April 2001 was followed by a two-week stay at the tough Cottonwood Clinic in Arizona a year later, where clients have included Kate Moss, Paul Gascoigne and Naomi Campbell.

Again, he vowed to stay sober, only to be seen a few weeks later on the London party circuit clearly the worse for wear.

In March 2004, he was admitted once again to The Priory after being found inebriated underneath a restaurant table. And almost exactly a year later, in March 2005, he checked into an Irish clinic after getting drunk at wife's 50th birthday party.