‘I couldn’t speak’ – The footballing legends coming to terms with their heart health
Graeme Souness, David Ginola and Glenn Hoddle are some of the most recognisable names in the world of football – and they are all united by one common enemy.
The group of former players have all been impacted by life-threatening heart conditions.
Alongside other famous faces like Tom Lockyer, Megan Tinsley and Charlie Wyke, they are working to raise awareness about the importance of CPR training with the British Heart Foundation and Sky Bet’s Every Minute Matters campaign.
It aims to recruit 270,000 people – the equivalent of three Wembley’s – to learn life-saving CPR over the next 12 months.
Every Minute Matters urges everyone to take 15 minutes – the length of the half-time interval – to learn CPR with the charity’s online tool RevivR
Sky Bet has also pledged to donate up to £3 million to support the work of the BHF starting with £10,000 for every goal scored during normal and extra time during the Sky Bet Play-Offs.
It started on Friday and will end with three showpiece finals at England’s national stadium later this month.
Former Liverpool FC captain Graeme Souness, 70, was diagnosed with coronary heart disease aged 38, and suffered a heart attack in 2015.
He opened up to Metro.co.uk about the experience and impact and said: ‘I was 30, I was fit, I was training vigorously, and had a good lifestyle after being in football since the age of 15 professionally. So when I was diagnosed it was a real shock to me.
‘I had the operation and then about 20 years later had an attack. I knew what was happening to me, I was conscious.
‘I can remember the worst part about it was I suppose I couldn’t speak. You know you can’t speak.
‘Then I remember going in the ambulance and being treated on the table with the doctor trying to get a stent into me.
‘He couldn’t get it in so that was a bit disappointing but I’m here to talk about it.’
On the other end of the age scale, Derby County defender Megan Tinsley, 26, had her career put on hold on medical advice and had an implantable loop recorder (ILR) placed in her chest to monitor her heart rhythm and rate.
It came 20 years after she had surgery to fix a hole in her heart.
She recalled the experience when she knew something was wrong and said: ‘I ran from the edge of our 18 yard box all the way up to the half way line which I’ve done so many times over the years but this time I wasn’t able to run back.
‘It was almost as if someone was pulling my shirt thinking you are not going to get back.
‘For me, I didn’t know whether I was having a heart attack or not or whether I had gone into cardiac arrest but my heart was pounding and I thought there is something seriously wrong here because I’ve never experienced that before. So I thought I’m going to go and get myself checked out.
‘I had a 24-hour heart rate monitor on, they reviewed it and said at 2am in the morning your heart beat eight times in two seconds.
‘I asked “what does that mean?” and she said basically you’ve had something called a ventricular tachycardia. She said I don’t want to scare you but you’ve basically had a mini heart attack in your sleep.’
For former Tottenham Hotspur legend Glenn Hoddle, 66, he was saved thanks to the quick thinking of BT sound engineer Simon Daniels.
Hoddle suffered a cardiac arrest in a London TV studio and was taken to hospital for emergency heart surgery on his 61st birthday.
He recalled: ‘Simon was there as a sound engineer who was trained in CPR and basically the reason I am sitting here now is because he did his CPR and saved my life.
‘The campaign is just marvellous because it is going to save people’s lives.
‘We’ve all gone through similar experiences and we wouldn’t be sitting here if it wasn’t for CPR.’
On May 16 2016, former Newcastle United and Spurs star David Ginola, 57, collapsed while playing a charity football match at the home of Jean-Stéphane Camerini in the south of France.
His sudden collapse was due to a cardiac arrest and he fell into a coma.
Ginola described the ordeal as an ‘experience’ and said: ‘When you collapse on the football pitch and your heart stops beating you are dead.
‘Someone is pumping your chest performing CPR for 10 minutes. It is a very strange experience, a very awkward one, but I have been very lucky to have someone who knew how to perform CPR.’
Despite only being a 31-year-old, Wigan Athletic striker Charlie Wyke suffered a cardiac arrest during training and his heart stopped beating for four minutes.
His life was saved thanks to then Wigan boss Leam Richardson who performed CPR until club doctor Jonathan Tobin took over.
‘It was a hard time and totally unexpected,’ Charlie recalled.
‘I’m just thankful that everyone who was around me at the time knew CPR to save me. I have a family and it was a sudden thing and I could have been gone.
‘It has been a tough two years recovering from it but I feel great now and I’m back playing football which has always been the priority.’
Tom Lockyer, 29, collapsed playing for Luton Town during last year’s Sky Bet Championship play-off final.
He experienced an atrial flutter and underwent a procedure to treat it and later suffered a cardiac arrest during a Premier League match against Bournemouth in December 2023.
Lockyer is only here today because he was saved by club medics who rushed to perform CPR.
He said: ‘It is not very nice at all and you are wondering what next? Will I play football? Will I be able to walk? Will I be able to run? Will I be able to play five-a-side? Can I chase my kid around the park?’
Heart and circulatory diseases cause an average of 480 deaths a day, or one every three minutes in the UK, according to the BHF.
Around 1.4 million people in the UK are alive today having survived a heart attack.
Simon Daniels who saved Hoddle talked about the importance of CPR.
He said: ‘When you look at the statistics every year there is 30,000 people who have a cardiac arrest outside of hospital and only one in 10 survive because you need more people CPR trained.
‘I was very fortunate because at the time I was a volunteer special constable so I had my first aid training every single year and I’d only really refreshed my training a few months before Glenn had his cardiac arrest.
‘Obviously for me I was doing my normal day job working at BT and I came out the sound control room, walked onto the studio floor, Glenn was kicking a football around with Robbie Savage and then he just collapsed with no warning.
‘I ran over and realised Glenn was seriously unwell and checked for breathing, pulse, everything, nothing there, and I rolled him onto his back and started doing CPR.’
The importance of CPR is reflected in the campaign and all the footballers’ recognition and support for its aims.
Souness said: ‘Hopefully over the next year 270,000 people will learn how to do CPR. It is so important. I know how to do it, but I never want to use it, and I don’t want to be in that situation where somebody drops off in front of me and I’ve got to do it.
‘If it happens though, I’m prepared for it.’
‘You can’t put into words how much it means to people the fact that you can learn CPR in less than 15 minutes with the British Heart Foundation’s website,’ Tinsley said.
Wyke added: ‘It can happen at anytime and if you learn CPR you could be the one to save somebody someday.’
Lockyer has this simple message for everybody: ‘This isn’t going anywhere, it doesn’t discriminate, I was a healthy athlete.
‘The one thing we all have in common is we were saved by someone who knew CPR.’
For Ginola it is simple, he said: ‘If you know how to perform CPR do it because you can save lives rather than not doing anything and people will die from it.
‘RevivR, 15 minutes, you will be a hero.’
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