'I've played football with broken leg - my heart scare on plane didn't worry me'

Daily Mirror

4 days ago

Stuart Pearce infamously broke his leg but played on in 1999 (Image: Jamie McDonald /Allsport)
Severe chest pains and a searing heart rate at 30,000 feet is enough to traumatise anybody. Yet, for Stuart Pearce, the former England captain affectionately known as 'Psycho', there was no out-of-body experience nor life-changing lesson to be learned.
'Terminator' may have been a more suitable nickname for Pearce, who has a history of treating debilitating pain as a mild inconvenience. In March, before hopping on a flight from Las Vegas to London, the ex-Manchester City and Nottingham Forest defender felt increasing pain within his chest.
Not to make a fuss, he planned to sleep it off during his journey back across the pond. The pain did not ease and before he knew it, the plane was diverting to Newfoundland, Canada, where he would spend five days in hospital.
A virus had caused his heart rate to soar to 155 beats per minute, a hugely dangerous and life-threatening speed. In hospital, his heart was stopped and then restarted to bring its speed back to normal levels.
But despite the most terrifying of all health scares taking place at the worst possible moment, Pearce told Mirror Football that his old school mentality helped him through. He said: "I am very matter-of-fact, to be honest with you.
"Even at the time, because my family have got no medical history of heart problems, I almost went through with a, 'Right, I'm in your hands. Get on with it. What do you need me to do?' mentality.
"I'm very matter-of-fact as a person. I've always been like that. It has served me well to be fair. I do not overthink things. That's been the case.
Pearce opened up about his heart scare in March (Image: Richard Pelham - The FA/The FA via Getty Image)
"I've probably tried to use it, when I can, to help other people, if you like, to make sure they get themselves checked out regularly. I've got the League Managers' Association (LMA), which I am a member of. They go through a lot of medical checks.
"I had a heart check last summer as well. Regularly, I get checked up as well anyway. I know I am on top of these things. I'd like to turn round and say, because it would be a better story, that I have had a life-changing experience, but I am not wired that way."
Barely a fortnight after his huge health scare, Pearce was back to work, commentating on England's narrow 2-0 victory over Albania. He has never been one to wallow in his own pain. Even a broken leg was not enough to stop him from finishing a half of football.
Stuart Pearce was back commentating barely two weeks after his scare (Image: 2025 Crystal Pix/MB Media)
In September 1999, playing for West Ham against Watford at the start of the Premier League campaign, Pearce went in for a characteristically hard challenge against Micah Hyde. The bruising and powerful nature of the challenge gave the 78-cap ex-England international a limp for the rest of the match.
In Pearce's mind, it was no drama. 'Just run it off,' he said to himself. He came out of the challenge assuming he had broken his shin pad. He had actually broken his leg.
"I went in for a challenge and I thought my shin pad had cracked, because I had heard a cracking noise," he said. "But it was my bone, rather than my shin pad.
Stuart Pearce's toughness was iconic during his playing career (Image: Phil Cole/ALLSPORT)
"I fractured my tibia just before half-time. I came to the side of the pitch. I hadn't realised. I knew it was painful, but you don't realise that, near enough, the bone has gone right through.
"I tried to ice it at half-time, not knowing, thinking it was just a bang on my shin bone. When I tried to run in the tunnel to loosen it up a little bit, I knew full well something was not quite right at that stage when the adrenaline stopped pumping.
"We all have a slightly different pain threshold, and when you are involved in football, sometimes, bizarrely, you can get away with doing things you couldn't in everyday life. I put mine down to a little bit of ignorance and not knowing that my shin bone was broken."
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