FOR Lyndon Dykes, the past couple of months have served a stark reminder that football is far from a matter of life and death. So grave was the situation after he contracted pneumonia, all he was concerned about was pulling through a huge health scare for his family.
Sitting down with Dykes yesterday after he joined up with the Scotland squad, you would have no indication of what he had been through over the last few weeks. The big man looked the picture of health.
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But his rapid recovery belies the peril he was in when he was ordered straight to hospital after taking unwell during a training session with QPR in early February.
“It was kinda strange,” Dykes said. “I was ill for a week leading up to it, and we didn’t really know what it was.
“I had sort of flu symptoms, a temperature, a cough, not feeling great. But I’m the type of person that tries to batter through, just take medicine and try to play.
“I played on the weekend against Swansea, didn’t feel great and was ill at half time. I got about 75 minutes and had to come off.
“I ended up trying to push through, and then that Thursday I tried to train, and I knew then that something wasn’t quite right. I ended up going to hospital that night.
“I was happy just to get through it, to be honest, it was a tough time. I’m happy to be back on the pitch.
“I tried to train the morning of it but by night I was in critical care in the hospital. It was a bit of an emotional and a bit of a crazy time for me.
“I’m an athlete so I’m used to running around everywhere but I couldn’t run 10 metres. I was really struggling so I was just happy to come out of it. For my family as well, it was quite a tough time.
“It was crazy. Being at training in the morning, then going to see the specialist…he said ‘you are going straight to hospital with that amount of pneumonia in your lung.’ “I just couldn’t believe I was going into hospital. But I ended up in there for eight days. I was in critical care the whole time. I went in on the Thursday and got out the following Friday.
“The first few days were rough. The medicine wasn’t working as well as they wanted it to work. They changed a few things and the following week I started to pick up a bit and get back on my feet.
“But it was tough, being locked in a room and seeing what happens in hospitals is not a nice sight, so to get out of it was just a relief. I was so happy to be out of it.”
The fact that Dykes has managed not only to get back to full health, but play three fixtures for his club and make the Scotland squad for the fixtures against Cyprus and Spain, is a small miracle. But when he was lying in hospital struggling for his breath, the thought of pulling on the boots again wasn’t uppermost in his mind.
“At the start I wasn’t even thinking about football,” he said.
“It was that bad. But after the first few days you do start thinking about it. “It was quite hard getting your breath when you first start walking. I had a physio work with me to help with my breathing and I ended up doing laps of the hospital, trying to get my fitness back.
“I was walking around the corridors and then trying to get a bit of a jog on and see what I could do. I knew it would be a slow process, taking it step by step, day by day, and I needed to work as hard as I could to get back.
“I think they were quite surprised how quickly I did get back because it was supposed to be a lot longer, but I got through it and I’m just happy to be back.”
As grateful as Dykes is for the care he received, he is in no rush to make a repeat visit to hospital any time soon. He revealed that - despite his famous love of tattoos - he has some rather surprising phobias.
“The staff were brilliant,” he said.
“Funnily enough, my fear was to be in hospital. It was the first time I have been in hospital but the staff were all amazing.
“I don’t like hospitals. Funny enough, with all my tattoos, [it’s] needles and blood I have an issue with. It’s just one of those things.
“But I am used to it all now, with the amount of blood tests I had taken and the amount of needles I had to deal with.
“At first, I didn’t want to go in, but the specialist told me there was no way I was going home.”
Dykes has a young son and two step-daughters, and he would dearly love to set their minds at rest and prove he is back to his old self by getting on the scoresheet against Cyprus at Hampden on Saturday.
“My little man wasn’t quite aware of what was going on but once he saw me it was a big shock,” he said.
“Now I use it to scare him and when I want to make sure he eats his vegetables or get his fruit into him! I tell him to make sure and eat up or he will end up in hospital like me!
“If it was the other way around, the feeling I would have if [my wife] was in that same situation…it definitely made it a hard situation for us all but especially for her with the kids.
“The kids came into hospital with her to see me a couple of days after I went in and I still wasn’t great. And them seeing me like that was a big shock for everyone.
“The Scotland games were an incentive [to get better]. I love playing for Scotland, I love coming away with the boys and the manager.
“It’s been really great recently with our results and the feeling with what we have created with the fans coming and watching us, and the whole feeling in the whole country.
“It was a big boost for me knowing that I was involved and coming back out here knowing what I had been through.
“It’s going to be a tough game. They aren’t going to be as straightforward as people may think, but we’re going in one hundred percent focused and we’re going to try to get the result, because that’s what we need.”
