The sight of Fabrice Muamba collapsing on the pitch at White Hart Lane at the weekend brought back harrowing memories for St Johnstone manager Steve Lomas.
The Perth boss was a team-mate at West Ham of Marc-Vivien Foe, who suffered a heart-related death in 2003 while representing Cameroon in the African Cup of Nations.
Lomas had a life-threatening incident of his own in 1995 when he swallowed his tongue during a match against Crystal Palace.
On top of the Muamba incident, closer to home there was the sad news that Kilmarnock midfielder Liam Kelly’s dad died while watching him at Hampden.
Lomas said: ”I couldn’t imagine my life without football but a weekend like the one we’ve just had puts everything into perspective. It’s been a really sad weekend. The pictures of Fabrice were pretty harrowing.
”It reminded me of Marc Vivien Foe, who I played with at West Ham. Unfortunately Marc passed away but hopefully Fabrice will pull through.
”Marc was a lovely guy a gentleman. I was numb at the time when I heard the news about Marc. It’s so hard to comprehend, especially somebody as fit as him. Marc was an absolute beast of a man. His muscles had muscles.
”I swallowed my tongue once playing for Man City, and I know that my mum and my family had a horrendous night. They got me round quite quickly but my mum was watching it on TV.
”So I can understand what Patrice’s family must have been going through watching the match on Saturday night.”
He added: ”And then when you hear about something like what has happened to Liam Kelly’s dad, the game almost doesn’t matter.
”Kenny Shiels is very close to his players we all are as managers. Rightly or wrongly, people have a go at footballers. But we see the human side of things.”
Photo by Rebecca Naden/PA Wire