Premier League footballer Tom Lockyer has said he would “love to play again” but is “at peace” with retiring from the game after suffering a cardiac arrest on the field earlier this season.
The captain of the town of Luton, whose first child was born in Marchsaid on Wednesday that he still hopes to play again, but accepts that this may not happen.
He told BBC Radio Wales: “I’ve made no secret of saying that I would love to return to football, but ultimately that would have to depend on someone who is a cardiologist or a specialist who has done thorough research into what happened and whether they can happen again, because now we have a little girl and she has priority.
“I would love to play football again, of course I would, it’s my life, but if I can’t then I’m at peace with that too.
“I played for my country, I played in every league and scored in every league, from non-league to the Premier League, so it’s not the end of the world.
“At the end of the day, I have my health and that is the most important thing.”
The 29-year-old midfielder an implantable cardioverter defibrillator adapted after collapsing during a game against Bournemouth in December.
He said he was “technically dead” for two minutes and 40 seconds before doctors resuscitated him.
The Welsh international had already collapsed on the field seven months earlier, during the Championship play-off final at Wembley Stadium, because of a different heart problem, atrial fibrillation.
Luton fans show their support for Tom Lockyer in February. Photo: PA
He said he wants to continue working in football and to that end he has tried to become a specialist and is working to get his coaching badge.
Lockyer spoke at the launch of the British Heart Foundation’s Every Minute Matters campaign, which aims to recruit 270,000 people to learn life-saving CPR over the next 12 months.
It includes fellow former players Graeme Souness, Glenn Hoddle, David Ginola and Fabrice Muamba, who have survived heart attacks or cardiac arrests, the latter pair, like Lockyer, on the field during a game.
Tom Lockyer (centre) with the Wales squad. Photo: PA
On Saturday, 20-year-old non-league player Jack Marshall suffered a cardiac arrest during a game for Bedfordshire side Kempston Rovers.
The player had an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) installed several years ago, which successfully revived him after four attempts, the BBC said.
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More than 170,000 deaths in the UK each year are caused by heart and circulatory disease, the foundation said on its website, an average of 480 deaths a day or one every three minutes.
There are around four million men living with these diseases and 3.6 million women.
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