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Tom Lockyer has revealed he has been cleared for a return to football nearly two years after suffering a cardiac arrest during a Premier League match.
The 30-year-old defender has not played a competitive match for club or country since collapsing on the field while captaining Luton Town in a fixture at Bournemouth's Vitality Stadium on December 16, 2023.
Lockyer, who was 29 at the time, described in the aftermath how he 'literally died', with his heart stopping for two minutes and 41 seconds during the harrowing incident.
He has since been fitted with an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) to regulate his abnormal heart rhythm and has also visited Professor Sanjay Shah, the cardiologist who helped Christian Eriksen following his cardiac arrest at Euro 2020.
It has been a tricky road back for Lockyer, who is currently without a club after Luton released him last summer - although he has been told that he could continue to use the club's facilities and work with their physios and medical staff during his rehabilitation.
The centre-back was due to return for his first match for Luton's Under-21 side last December, only to damage his ankle ligaments. He was then forced to undergo two operations, the second carried out because the first had failed to correct the issue.
Tom Lockyer has revealed he has been cleared for a return to football nearly two years after suffering a cardiac arrest during a Premier League match at Bournemouth's Vitality Stadium
The centre-back was due to return for his first match for Luton's Under-21 side last December, only to damage his ankle ligaments - and he was then forced to undergo two operations
'It's been a long old road, it really has,' Lockyer told the Feast of Football podcast.
'But I'm delighted to say I've been cleared to play football again so obviously that's amazing, just everything I've worked for ever since it (the cardiac arrest) happened.
'Everything looks good so I'm really, really happy.'
Lockyer has played 16 times for Wales, his last cap coming in November 2023 in a Euro 2024 qualifier against Turkey. That came under former Wales boss Rob Page, with Craig Bellamy now installed as national head coach.
He became a father in March last year, three months after suffering the cardiac arrest, and has previously spoken about how she had given him a new perspective on life.
'I'm so lucky to still be here and in her life,' he said.
'When I hold her now, it's just amazing. The feeling and love you have for your child is incredibly strong and mine is even stronger now. I am just so thankful I am here to see her grow, see her change, smile and you know, be sick on me. I just love it. I am incredibly fortunate. I can't stress that enough.'
Wales face England in another tough friendly at Wembley on Thursday, 9 October.
