Irish soccer player Shane Duffy 'happy to be alive’ after life-saving surgery

Larger Text

Print

E-mail

6 Comments

Shane Duffy speaks to press after his release from hospital on Friday

Tweet

Shane Duffy was released from hospital on Friday after coming within seconds of losing his life after a freak accident in a training match with the Republic of Ireland squad last week.

“I’m so happy to be alive” the Everton player told press on leaving hospital.

 “This time last week I was going to have an operation. That was scary. It’s been a crazy week. The pain is easing now and I feel a lot better. When it happened it was a blur. I woke up Friday night and was told I had an operation. Mum and Dad were telling me I nearly died, it was crazy.”

Duffy collided with goalkeeper Aidan Walsh in the training game on May 21, and after receiving treatment on the filed, was rushed to the Mater Hospital in Dublin where he underwent surgery.

The fact that he was an 18-year-old professional athlete in top shape stood to him as his blood pressure dropped to dangerously low levels on the way to the Mater Hospital.

But for the timely intervention of the FAI medical team and Mater Hospital surgeon Gerry McEntee, Duffy might not have made it.

“I can’t thank the FAI enough, and the nurses and the staff at the hospital. Hopefully I’ll be back playing in four to five months. I’ll take it easy, I won’t rush back. I’ll take a rest back home, take a holiday and go back to Everton in July,” he said.

Duffy has made an impressive recovery and was able to joke about the incident just a day or two later.

While in hospital, Irish manager Giovanni Trapattoni and Irish captain Robbie Keane visited him , and Duffy was grateful for their concern.

"When Robbie came in I was still sleeping", he said. “To see the manager was brilliant and Robbie who’s a top man. All the lads were top class to come in.”

In other Republic of Ireland news, Robbie Keane scored twice and Paul Green scored his first goal for his country as the boys in green beat Algeria 3-0 in an international friendly at the RDS on Friday night.

Print

E-mail

Tweet