A former Scottish Premiership footballer has told how he thought he was going to die after collapsing during a match.
Ex- Kilmarnock midfielder Will Graham, 23, was playing for West of Scotland Football League Hurlford United in a friendly against Maybole in July when he collapsed with a burst brain aneurysm. Speaking for the first time about his ordeal, Will admitted he thought he was going to die after being rushed to hospital by his dad.
He told how during the first half he was about to get in position for a throw in when he felt “a big heat” where the brain bleed happened.
He said: “I tried to make an option for my teammate who was taking the throw in but my legs just wouldn’t go. My body just wouldn’t let me move. I must have run around for the next minute and a half and then I shouted something to my teammate but it came out as a mumble.
“I thought, ‘What did you say there Will?’. I tried to say it again and it still came out as a complete mumble. As I tried to shout, my legs started to give way – they were like jelly. It is the most horrific feeling I have ever experienced.
“I turned around and the pitch started to spin and other players on the park started to see something wasn’t right. I was trying to ask for help. I was saying to the referee and an opposition player I needed help but it wasn’t coming out right.
“By the second it felt as if my body was draining and draining. I was in the middle of the pitch and thought, ‘I need to get to the manager and tell him something is not right’.
“I was on the verge of collapse. I tried to walk over and I collapsed into the arms of the assistant manager. I chucked my body at him and said, ‘I need help’.”
Will’s girlfriend, Emma Montgomery, came running to the bench and sat him down because his legs were going.
He said: “She thought I was having a hypo (a hypoglycaemia attack caused by low blood sugar levels) because I had them before but I knew straight away it was something different. They tried to get me to have a sugary drink but after about five minutes my face started to droop to one side like I was having a stroke and they realised it was more serious.
“My speech went completely, my head was spinning, my legs had gone and my body was getting weaker and weaker. Someone tried to call an ambulance but there were none available so my dad went for the car.
“Our physio and goalie carried me to the car. I had no control of my body, it was like dragging a dead body for them. I couldn’t help in any way. It was a nightmare getting me in because my left side felt like it wasn’t mine. It was floppy, nothing was working.”
Dad Steven, 52, had been talking to his younger son Sam, 11, when Will collapsed so it took a minute or so before he realised something was wrong. He said: “Initially I didn’t realise how serious it was but putting him in the car I knew there was something pretty badly wrong.” Steven admitted he went into “autopilot” and doesn’t recall the journey to hospital.
He added: “Somehow we just got there. He is a real boy for exercise so I thought perhaps he just hadn’t had enough sugar in him so it was a shock when they told me what was wrong.”
It is unknown how long Will had the aneurysm but it was not football related. As Will awaited the results of an MRI scan he believed he was going to die.
He explained: “My girlfriend was standing at the end of the bed and everything around her was going black. I was trying to tell her, ‘Emma you are disappearing’. She said I was reaching out to her but I couldn’t see her. I told her, ‘I think I am dying’. I had accepted I was going to die. Crazy as it seems, I felt a sense of peace over me. I thought, ‘This must be it, this must be when I am going to die’.
“My body felt everything was being drained out of it because the bleed was getting bigger and bigger.”
Will remembers nothing else until he woke up in the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow after brain surgery. But just six weeks later, Will is starting to jog and has his sights fixed on resuming his career.
He said: “I am absolutely getting there, just one day at a time. I am keeping positive and appreciating the small things.”
Will knows it will be a long road to recovery as he is still struggling with basic things like reading and writing and although he has movement in his legs he still has no feeling on his left side. But he has made remarkable progress, leaving hospital just 12 days after his collapse – almost two months ahead of schedule.
He said: “Because I am now in rehab I feel I am mentally much stronger.” Will also has a deep faith which has helped him. He said: “I believe God has given me this battle for a reason and I will get through the battle no matter how long it takes. I wake up every morning and thank God every day for another day of life.
“If I don’t play football again that is God’s plan for me. But if a miracle was to happen and I was to go back on the pitch I would be so incredibly grateful.”
●Hurlford set up an appeal to help with Will’s rehabilitation at https://bit.ly/3DhMxhl
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