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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 pitch earlier this season.
The Luton Town captain, whose first child was born in March, said on Wednesday he is still hoping to play again, but accepts that it may not happen.
He told BBC Radio Wales: “I’ve made no secret saying I would love to return to football, but ultimately it would have to come down to someone who’s a cardiologist or a specialist who has done full research into what has gone on and if it could happen again, because we’ve got a little girl now and she takes priority.
“I would love to play football again, of course I would, it’s my life but if it’s the case that I can’t, then I’m at peace with that as well.
“I played for my country, I’ve 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’ve got my health and that’s the most important thing”.
The 29-year-old midfielder had an implantable cardioverter defibrillator fitted after collapsing during a game against Bournemouth in December.
He has said he was “technically dead” for two minutes and 40 seconds before medics resuscitated him.
The Wales international had previously collapsed on the pitch seven months earlier during the Championship play-off final at Wembley Stadium because of a different heart condition, atrial fibrillation.
He said he is keen to stay working in football and to that end has tried his hand at punditry and is working towards getting his coaching badges.
Lockyer was speaking at the launch of the British Heart Foundation’s Every Minute Matters campaign, which aims to recruit 270,000 people to learn lifesaving CPR over the next 12 months.
It includes other former players Graeme Souness, Glenn Hoddle, David Ginola and Fabrice Muamba, who all survived either heart attacks or cardiac arrest, the latter pair, like Lockyer, on the pitch during a game.
On Saturday, Jack Marshall, a 20-year-old non-league player, suffered a cardiac arrest during a game for Bedfordshire side Kempston Rovers.
The player had an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) fitted 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 diseases, the foundation said on its website, an average of 480 deaths each day or one every three minutes.
There are around four million men living with those illnesses, and 3.6 million women.
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