TOM LOCKYER has revealed that he has been given the all-clear after his terrifying injury during the Championship Play-Off final.
The Luton Town defender collapsed at Wembley Stadium during the match and was taken to hospital for treatment.
Lockyer was conscious as he was stretchered off the pitch and watched his side beat Coventry from his hospital bed.
In an interview with Sky Sports, he revealed that he had minor surgery and that the issue should “never happen again”.
He said: “I’m doing well. It’s been a mad week or so. I had the all-clear yesterday [Monday] and I’m all good moving forward.
“I was quite lucky. They knew straight away what it was and it wasn’t life-threatening. It was an atrial flutter, which is an irregular heartbeat, so my heart wasn’t responding as it should in those situations.
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“It’s probably the least severe heart condition you could have and I had a little procedure on Wednesday [May 31] to correct that and it should never happen again.
“It’s quite funny, really – I didn’t feel anything at all. I had a great chance with the header and got a little bit excited from that, thinking I’d scored at Wembley!
“Then I was just running backwards, went really light-headed and my legs went really weak straightaway. I remember stumbling backwards.
“I was told I was coming off as I’d collapsed and I was like ‘no, no I’m fine!’ I wondered why I was on the floor, so that’s when I realised and the emotions all went. When I went off on the stretcher, Rob [Edwards] came to me and said ‘don’t worry, we’ll win it for you’ and I was bawling my eyes out so couldn’t respond.”
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He also admitted that he never felt like he was in danger and was just focused on being able to watch the game.
Luckily for the defender, the club secretary was on hand with his phone so he could watch the game.
He added: “The club secretary came down with my phone and I started watching the game on SkyGo!
“I was thinking ‘this is no good for my heart!’ I watched the full game back afterwards and we were unbelievable in the first half, Coventry came in the second and it was a bit of a nothing extra time before 11 unbelievable penalties.
“If you score five penalties in a shootout you expect to win it, so for both teams to score five was amazing. When that last one got missed, it was sheer delight.
“My old man took a photo, posted it and it went viral. Once my family saw I was fine and cracking jokes and whatnot, that put them at ease and, if anyone had concerns, hopefully that put it to rest.”
As mentioned, Lockyer’s dad, Steve, posted the photo of him celebrating the moment that Luton clinched promotion to the Premier League.
The snap was met by a lot of positivity and well-wishers hoping that Lockyer was okay after his fright.
The Luton Town team also paid tribute to him during their celebrations back at Wembley as they held a shirt with his name on it in the air during the trophy lift.
However, he did miss the team trip to Las Vegas as he required treatment, but he is more gutted about missing the celebration although he is excited about being a Premier League player.
He said: “For me, it hasn’t sunk in yet what the lads have achieved. We had the dream to get promoted and it still doesn’t feel real. It’s amazing we have been able to do that and when it sinks in, maybe there will be a few more tears.
“I can’t sit here and lie – it was hard to watch (the celebrations). To go through the gruelling season we’d just had to then miss out on the one big game and the celebrations at the end. “It was hard, it is hard, but you have to look at it from a health point of view. I would have missed a lot more to get that all-clear news.
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“Looking back now, I know I didn’t, but I felt like I’d let the team down, let the boys down, so I couldn’t stop crying coming off that pitch, but I think it was a lot worse for everyone else watching. I’ve watched it back and it’s not a nice watch for myself.
“To be honest, I felt as though I could have walked off the pitch, but the medics did their jobs and I can’t thank them enough.”
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
