by TOM BRYANT, Daily Mail - 14th June 2006

He has battled with a drink problem throughout his career and even his long-suffering wife admits she can not stop him. 

But after celebrating his 59th birthday party in typically riotous fashion, Ronnie Wood has now admitted he needs help. 

The Rolling Stones guitarist has checked himself into rehab clinic The Priory, in Roehampton, London, for an intense five-day drying out session. 

It is his sixth trip to rehab in the last few years - but sources say the star is determined to get fit again before the Stones' European leg of its Bigger Bang tour kicks off. 

The tour has already been postponed by more than a month after his bandmate Keith Richards had brain surgery after falling out of a coconut tree. 

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

Yet he very publicly fell off the wagon after being seen stumbling out of London's trendy Annabel's nightclub, at 3.30am after an alcohol-fuelled, birthday party earlier this month. 

With fellow guests including hardened party-goers such as model Kate Moss, artist Tracey Emin and snooker player Jimmy White it was, perhaps, no surprise. 

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. 

"It's got worse since so hopefully this will sort him out." 

The news will delight his former-model wife, Jo, 51, 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. He always knows when they are coming on. I used to get very involved." 

As well as his wife, his drinking is also understood to deeply upset his children Leah, 27 and Jessie, 28. 

Wife Jo 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." 

Although he is only expected to stay at the clinic for the weekend, his spokesman said that Wood should be fit again for the first night of the tour in Milan, Italy, on July 11. 

Woods 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 10 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. 

News of Wood's latest spell in rehab is the latest problem to befall the Stones tour. 

The band were forced to cancel more dates than planned to allow time for Keith Richards to recover from brain surgery. 

Guitarist Richards, 62, was rushed to hospital after developing a blood clot on his brain after falling from a tree during a holiday in Fiji. 

In 2004, drummer Charlie Watts, 65, was diagnosed with throat cancer but recovered to start last year's tour following a successful course of radiotherapy. 

The Bigger Bang tour was due to start last month in Barcelona.