Tom Lockyer has been watching online compilations of himself playing. Just the odd video of his performances against Liverpool, Manchester City and Manchester United from 2023. “Just to remember what I was like when I was playing,” he smiles. “It was quite nice, it gives you confidence.”
Lockyer can be forgiven for the self-indulgence. It has been almost two years since he played. It’s easy to forget he was a Premier League captain the last time he took to the field, a stalwart of Luton Town’s defence with 16 caps for Wales.
A huge amount has changed since. On 16 December 2023, Lockyer suffered a cardiac arrest on the pitch at Bournemouth. His heart stopped for two minutes and 40 seconds before he was resuscitated and rushed to hospital.
He was fitted with an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator. Most assumed he would never play professionally again, especially as he had already undergone heart surgery after collapsing in the Championship play-off final of the same year.
Now 30, Lockyer is candid and humble in recalling the incident. “It just happened to me. I was just the unfortunate one, but in a way I was so lucky at the same time.”
He is now using his position as a high-profile cardiac arrest survivor to go on the campaign trail. His mission? To ensure CPR training is widespread and that defibrillators, like the one that saved his life, are fitted in every gym in the country.
He is pushing a petition to get the issue discussed in Parliament having been inspired by the former Tottenham player Justin Edinburgh, who died in 2019 after a sudden cardiac arrest in a gym while managing Leyton Orient.
Edinburgh was just 49, had played professionally for nearly 20 years and was seemingly fighting fit. There are parallels with Lockyer.
“The fact that my incident happened in an elite sporting environment just shows it can happen to anyone,” he says. “I was playing in the Premier League at the peak of my fitness, Christian Eriksen was playing in the Euros… It can happen to anyone at any time.
“I was saved by people who were trained and knew what to do and that isn’t the case with so many, which is why I’m campaigning with the British Heart Foundation and why I’m pushing for Justin’s Law.
“The sad thing is, until events like this happen, that’s when it’s talked about. I know it happened to Christian and Fabrice Muamba [who suffered a cardiac arrest playing for Bolton against Tottenham in 2012] before me, but they’re maybe not as vocal about it. And there’s no right or wrong way to deal with it, but for me speaking about it and trying to make a difference does help.
“Sadly if it doesn’t affect people directly, they don’t understand the gravity of it. People will say to me: ‘oh great campaigning’ and I’ll ask ‘have you learned CPR yet?’ and they’ll say no. But why? It literally takes 15 minutes and you could save someone’s life.”
For Lockyer, all of that now comes before football. Yet it’s clear his absence from the game has been painful. After leaving Luton, he’s enjoyed a spell training with former club Bristol Rovers but is very much open to offers. His comeback would actually have come far sooner had it not been for an ankle injury that required surgery, setting him back nine months.
It has been a rocky road but it’s helped Lockyer gain a sense of perspective with a wife and 19-month-old daughter keeping him busy at home.
“My wife was seven months pregnant at Bournemouth when I had my cardiac arrest,” he says. “So I understand more than anyone that football is just a moment of time in your life; it’s not life or death. Family comes first.
“If I had any doubt or hesitation over playing again, I wouldn’t be trying this. I don’t want to be a hero who dies on the pitch. I love my life now, I love seeing the smile on my daughter’s face. So I won’t take that chance.” There is then a pause. “But football is fun, so if I can do it safely then why wouldn’t I?”
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Doctors have monitored every one of Lockyer’s heartbeats during exercise over the past 20 months. He now feels safe and hungry to return.
“My game was never about legs or athleticism, my technical ability was very limited,” Lockyer laughs.
“But I always had desire, a heart, a good attitude and an ability to organise a group of players. That doesn’t change, you can do that until you’re 85. I didn’t have half a yard of pace to lose anyway, so I can’t see it bothering me!
“If I lost my hunger and desire, I think I’d lose myself as a player, so I wouldn’t want to waste anyone’s time. That was the one thing I was questioning having been out so long. Would I be up for signing for a non-league club and getting kicked all over, having had my last game in the Premier League? But now it’s so close again I can tell you that hunger is there.”
Lockyer and the JE3 Foundation are campaigning for ‘Justin’s Law’ to legally mandate Automated External Defibrillators in all health and sports facilities in the UK.
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