by Rob Edwards, who spoke so eloquently and compassionately about Tom Lockyer’s on-field cardiac arrest, has one final question: what will be his last message to the Luton Town players on Saturday before they leave the dressing room to face their take on Newcastle United. on the emotionally charged Kenilworth Road?
“We want to be bold and we can embody what Locks is,” says Edwards. “He’s brave. He is determined – and we want to go and do it for him. That will be the message.”
They are words, last Saturday, the Luton manager might have feared he would never be able to deliver when his captain collapsed in the second half of the Premier League game at Bournemouth.
It is amazing that from the moment the defender fell to the turf until he was revived was only two minutes. Only two minutes. And speed, led by Bournemouth midfielder Philip Billing who was by Lockyer’s side, has been crucial so far in the recovery as he eventually left the field and was taken into the medical room at Bournemouth’s vibrant Stadium.
As doctors, led by Luton’s Amos Ogunkoya, worked on Lockyer, colleagues and opponents outside were anxiously awaiting news. Among them were three fellow internationals from Wales at Bournemouth, led by his close friend David Brooks, who later visited him in hospital.
“They made every decision going forward under the watchful eye,” Edwards says of the medical team. “Unbelievable, unbelievable job. They are heroes. They saved him.”
However, those opening two minutes must have been an eternity for Edwards to run onto the field.
Last May, during the Championship play-off final at Wembley, Lockyer suffered a scare when he went down and was taken off before being diagnosed with atrial fibrillation, which meant his heart was beating four times faster than it should. placed. That was corrected after surgery. Edwards knew this incident was different. This time it was more serious. It was a cardiac arrest and, from the touchline, “I just felt it,” says Edwards. “I can’t explain. I just felt it. But now we also know that it is different. It had gone down before in May too and you will automatically worry. Yes, I felt it and quickly you can see that it was different. Around then you could see. I don’t want to go into detail because it would spoil too much.”
As the doctors worked on Lockyer on the field, his partner, Taylor, who is seven months pregnant, came down to touch down. “It was hard for all of us but for those closest to him I can’t imagine how they were feeling,” says Edwards. “Steve, his father, was incredible in the way he dealt with him. Incredible people. It must have been so scary for them.”
After the game was abandoned and Edwards finally left the stadium, the manager went to see Lockyer, who was taken to a local hospital. “I didn’t know what to expect,” Edwards admits. “He was connected to everything and was lying down, chatting, smiling, quite happy. Unbelievable. He is an incredible man. It was nice to give him a hug and kiss and chat with him for a little while.”
And did Lockyer have anything to say? “Believe it or not he was just being his normal self, joking and talking about doing anything to get away from Christmas,” says Edwards. In fact the Luton Christmas Party was scheduled for that evening before the players had two days off to take.
Edwards decided to go ahead with the holidays. This meant that the players were back with their families and loved ones and were given some time to process what had happened before they returned to the Luton training ground on Tuesday morning.
Edwards meeting together. Unsure what was happening to Lockyer it was difficult to park him but Luton called in the charity Sporting Chance, which offers counseling and mental health support.
“It was difficult,” says Edwards. “I was honest [with the players] and tell them what stage he was in, knowing that he was in very good hands. So, I was still a bit emotional on Tuesday. It was still very emotional for me.”
Edwards decided to let his coaches, Ritchie Kyle and Paul Trollope, take a relaxed training session while he watched and made himself available for any conversations especially as he knew many of the players, led by a best friend Lockyer in the Carlton Morris club, which he had. in contact.
“As far as I know the players are fine, their mental state is good and there’s no concern like that,” Edwards tells Sporting Chance explaining the role they can play going forward. “They’re checking in and the players have been able to use it if they feel like 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 are here.'”
The Luton team are looking for any signs of ‘motivational’ moments for players.
Throughout the week Edwards, only 40 and “never dealt with anything like this before”, was inundated with messages of support. Steve Cooper, who knew Edwards from his coaching days at the Football Association, was in daily contact while he was dealing with his sacking at Nottingham Forest. “With everything he’s been doing this past week,” Edwards says. “That shows the class of the man.”
There will also be a “special bond”, he says, in the future with Bournemouth and their head coach, Andoni Iraola, with whom he has been in touch and acted so promptly himself.
Another day off was planned for Wednesday and Edwards said it was right to go ahead with that before the players started training again on Thursday. He was also able to give them a positive update on Lockyer, which lifted the mood, as Morris went to see his team-mate at home after being released from hospital. Other players will follow.
Professor Sanjay Sharma, who chairs the Football Association’s Cardiac Expert Committee, has seen Lockyer and managed his recovery following the incident last May. The player’s chest is fitted with an Implantable Cardiac Defibrillator (ICD) device, which detects and stops irregular heartbeats.
Former Manchester United defender Daley Blind and current midfielder Christian Eriksen have both been fitted with the device in recent years and are able to continue playing. But it’s too early to say what will happen with Lockyer because he went down a week ago. “The only thing I care about is his health,” Edwards says. “Nothing else crossed my mind.”
From his son’s home, Lockyer’s father sent a text message to Edwards. “He feels like he’s fighting a bear,” he read. Edwards communicated this to the players. “He’s a really important guy so we talked about that and what it means to us,” he says. “We want to embody that as a team and if we can all act, behave, play like Tom Lockyer then we’re going the right way. It was a scary moment but the main thing is that he’s OK and we have a job to do and we want to do that for Tom.”
Tapping into that feeling, Edwards admits, will be a fine balance as Luton return to the business of fighting to stay in the Premier League after Lockyer’s fight to save his life. “We all care for him and love him,” says Edwards. “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 do it proud.”
