High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Clarke James Carlisle (born 14 October 1979) is an English professional footballer who plays as a central defender for Football League One side Preston North End, on loan from Burnley. Born in Preston, he began playing football at a young age, taking inspiration from his father who played semi-professionally. Carlisle represented his home county of Lancashire at youth level. The start of his professional career was his Football League debut for Blackpool in September 1997. He went on to play 93 league games for Blackpool before moving to Queens Park Rangers in May 2000. In the same year, Carlisle won three caps for the England under-21 national team. He missed a number of games for Queens Park Rangers due to a cruciate ligament injury which at one stage led doctors to believe that his career was over. He then missed one month of the 2003–04 season because of an alcohol-related problem, and left Queens Park Rangers at the end of that season. In the summer of 2004, he joined Leeds United on a free transfer.