by One final question remains for Rob Edwards, who spoke so eloquently and compassionately about Tom Lockyer’s on-field cardiac arrest: what will be his final message to the Luton Town players on Saturday before they leave the dressing room to face Newcastle? United. On an emotionally charged Kenilworth Road?
“We want to be brave and we can embody what Locks is,” Edwards says. “He is brave. He is determined and we want to do it for him. That will be the message.”
They are words that, last Saturday, the Luton manager perhaps feared he would never be able to utter when his captain collapsed in the second half of the Premier League match at Bournemouth.
It should be noted that barely two minutes passed from the moment the defender fell to the grass until he was revived. Just two minutes. And speed, led by Bournemouth midfielder Philip Billing, who was closest to Lockyer, has been key, so far, to the recovery as he finally left the pitch and was taken to the medical room at Bournemouth’s Vitality Stadium.
While medics, led by Luton’s Amos Ogunkoya, worked on Lockyer, his teammates and opponents stood outside desperately waiting for news. Among them were three Wales international teammates at Bournemouth, led by his close friend David Brooks, who later visited him in hospital.
“They made every decision under the scrutiny of the world watching,” Edwards says of the medical staff. “Incredible, incredible work. They are heroes. “They saved him.”
However, those opening two minutes must have felt like an eternity for Edwards, who had run onto the field.
Last May, during the Championship play-off final at Wembley, Lockyer had suffered a scare in a fall and was removed before being diagnosed with atrial fibrillation, causing the top of his heart to beat four times. faster than it should. has been. That was corrected after surgery. Edwards knew this incident was different. This time he was more serious. It was a cardiac arrest and, from the sideline, “I just felt it,” Edwards says. “I can not explain it. I just felt it. But now we also know that it is different. He had also fallen earlier in May and you will automatically worry. Yes, I felt it and you can quickly see that it was different. You could see it there. “I don’t want to go into details because it would bring up too much.”
While doctors worked on Lockyer on the field, his teammate, Taylor, who is seven months pregnant, came down to the sideline. “It was difficult for all of us, but the people closest to him I can’t imagine how they felt,” Edwards says. “Steve, his father, has been incredible in the way he has dealt with it. Amazing people. He must have been very scary for them.”
After the game was abandoned and after Edwards finally left the stadium, the coach went to see Lockyer, who had been taken to the local hospital. “I didn’t know what to expect,” Edwards admits. “He was hooked on everything and was lying down, chatting, smiling, quite jovial. Incredible. He is an incredible man. “It was nice to give him a hug and a kiss and chat with him for a while.”
And did Lockyer say anything? “Believe it or not, he was his usual self, joking and talking about doing anything to get out of the Christmas party,” Edwards says. In fact, Luton’s Christmas party was scheduled that night before the players took two days off.
Edwards decided to go ahead with the days off. It meant the players were back with their families and loved ones and given some time to process what had happened before returning to the Luton training ground on Tuesday morning.
Edwards called a meeting. As he wasn’t sure what was going on with Lockyer, it was difficult to pitch him, but Luton called the charity Sporting Chance, which provides mental health advice and support.
“It was difficult,” Edwards says. “I was honest [with the players] and letting them know what stage he was at, knowing that he was in very, very good hands. So he was still a little emotional on Tuesday. “It was still quite emotional for me.”
Edwards decided to let his coaches, Ritchie Kyle and Paul Trollope, have a relaxed training session while he watched and was available for any chat, especially as he knew that many of the players, led by Lockyer’s best friend at the club, Carlton Morris, they had been in contact.
“As far as I know, the players are fine, their mental state is good and there are no concerns of that nature,” Edwards tells Sporting Chance, explaining the role they can play in the future. “They’ve been checking and the players were able to use it if they needed it,” Edwards says. “It’s important that they also spoke to the group and said, ‘This is who we are, this is what we can do, if you need anything, we’re here.’”
Luton staff have been on the lookout for any signs of “trigger” moments for players.
During the week, Edwards, just 40 years old and who had “never had to deal with anything like this before,” was inundated with messages of support. Steve Cooper, who knew Edwards from his time as a manager in the Football Association, has been in touch every day even though he was dealing with his sacking at Nottingham Forest. “With everything that happened to him last week,” Edwards says. “It just shows the class of the man.”
Also, he says, there will be a “special bond” in the future with Bournemouth and their head coach, Andoni Iraola, with whom he has been in contact and who himself acted so quickly.
Wednesday was another planned day off and Edwards reasoned it was right to go ahead with it before the players stepped up training again on Thursday. He was also able to give them a positive update on Lockyer, which lifted spirits, as Morris went to see his teammate at his house after he was released from the hospital. He will be followed by other players.
Lockyer has been seen by Professor Sanjay Sharma, who chairs the Football Association’s Cardiac Expert Committee, and who managed his recovery following the incident last May. An implantable automatic defibrillator (ICD) device has been placed in the player’s chest, which detects and stops irregular heartbeats.
Former Manchester United defender Daley Blind and his current midfielder Christian Eriksen have been fitted with the device in recent years and have been able to continue playing. But it’s too early to say what will happen to Lockyer given that his collapse occurred just a week ago. “The only thing I care about is his health,” Edwards says. “Nothing else has crossed my mind.”
From his son’s house, Lockyer’s father texted Edwards. “He feels like he’s had a fight with a bear,” he said. Edwards conveyed this to the players. “He’s a really important man, so we talked about that and what he means to us,” he says. “We want to embody that as a team and if we can all act, behave and play like Tom Lockyer then we are on the right path. “It was a scary moment, but the main thing is that he’s okay and we have a job to do and we want to do it for Tom.”
Tapping into that excitement will be a fine balance, as Edwards admits, with Luton getting back to the business of fighting to stay in the Premier League after Lockyer’s fight to save his life. “We all cared for him and loved him,” Edwards says. “He wants us to go and do it and we want to go and do it for him. It will be an emotional day for everyone involved. “We want to go and make him proud.”
