I collapsed on the pitch at Wembley in biggest game of my life – luckily the hospital had Sky so I could watch the match
LUTON TOWN star Tom Lockyer has opened up about his terrifying Wembley ordeal that led to him watching them seal promotion from hospital.
The defender, 29, collapsed during the first half of last season’s Championship Play-Off final victory over Coventry City.
Lockyer was conscious as he was stretchered off the pitch in tears before he was taken by ambulance to hospital.
Speaking to podcast, he has now revealed all about his scare.
The Welsh international said: “I remember walking out with the boy and it was so hot. We were warming up in the sun and I remember thinking ‘wow’.
“I remember trying to find the shade and warm-up in the shaded bit and looking up at Coventry warming up in the shade and thinking ‘that’s unfair’.”
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Once the game had started, he revealed how he successfully won his first battles with Coventry’s striker Viktor Gyokeres and then had an effort cleared off the line as he thought he’d made “the perfect start” to the game.
But then the terrifying moment came, as he explained: “I’m back-pedalling, and as I’m back-pedalling my head went really light-headed like nothing I’ve ever had before.
“It’s like when you stand up real quick but worse and then my legs went like jelly almost instantly and I remember falling backwards and the next thing I know I woke up and there were paramedics all around me.
“I remember waking up from a dream, I couldn’t tell you what it was about, but I remember having a dream.
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“As soon as i came round i was like sweet again.”
Having unsuccessfully trying to convince the medics and physios that he was “good” to continue playing, Lockyer was rushed to hospital after first being checked in a medical room at Wembley.
He said: “It was a weird feeling of let-down, like I was letting the team down. There was nothing I could’ve done, but in that moment, I just felt like I’d let the boys down by getting stretchered off the pitch.
“I had the oxygen mask on and I just couldn’t stop crying.”
Lockyer was taken straight to a medical room at Wembley where his heart rate was “going through the roof” which caused a spike in blood pressure that caused him to collapse.
“Someone came running in that room screaming ‘tell him Jordan Clarke has scored,” revealed Lockyer.
“The weirdest thing was we were in Wembley still but I didn’t hear a thing when we scored.
“But I burst out crying again. I got whizzed off to hospital then in the ambulance watching it on my phone with my mum in the back of the ambulance.
“We got to the hospital, a really nice hospital, and it had Sky in the room. We watch all of extra-time in my room and then it went to penalties.
“That’s when my old man took the photo of me in my bed and my family celebrating with me.
“But even then it was like a half-hearted celebration, no pun intended, because i hadn’t been told what was going on and I didn’t wanna raise my heart rate.”
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Fortunately, after a minor heart surgery, he was given the all-clear to return to action and is now competing for the Hatters in the Premier League.
He has made 15 appearances for the club so far this season, and he has even managed to score his first top-flight goal, helping Luton win 2-1 at Everton in September.
