Mick Lyons’ daughter has opened up on the impact of his dementia that leaves the Everton legend able to recall details about his playing career from several decades ago but sometimes causes him to forget where he’s been earlier that day. The Scouser, now 70, was a home-grown hero for Everton, playing 473 games (sixth on the all-time list) and scoring 59 goals for his beloved Blues between 1971-82, but has lived in Perth, Australia, for many years.
It was on one of her visits to see her father ‘Down Under’ that his daughter Francesca, who is still in Liverpool, started to pick up on the issues that would ultimately lead to Lyons’ diagnosis. She told the ECHO: “He was getting more forgetful and a few of his friends were getting in touch to say that they were a bit worried. I went over in Christmas 2019 to see him and I noticed a few things.
“My dad is a proud man and it’s difficult to have these type of conversations but I started speaking to him about maybe looking into it. Everything became more difficult after that because Covid happened, I couldn’t get to see him and noticed he seemed to be getting a little bit worse with stuff so I got in touch with his doctor over there, sent him an email and explained he was a professional footballer and it’s becoming quite common now for them to be having these type of issues.
