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Lyndon Dykes, the Scotland and Queens Park Rangers striker, has spoken for the first time about being rushed to hospital with pneumonia and spending eight days in intensive care. At one point the 27-year-year-old was so ill he could not think about returning to play football at all.
Dykes had felt slightly ill for a few days in January— with a raised temperature and a cough — but continued to train and even played against Swansea City before feeling unwell and having to come off after 58 minutes. He took medicine but when there were still symptoms the following Thursday, when he tried to train, he sought medical advice only to be told he had to be taken immediately to a nearby London hospital.
“I tried to train on the morning of it but by night I was in critical care in the hospital,” he said. “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 ten metres.
Dykes was at one point so ill he could not think about returning to play football at all
Dykes was at one point so ill he could not think about returning to play football at all
NOT KNOWN
“It was crazy being at training in the morning and then going to see the specialist where he said ‘you are going straight to hospital with that amount of pneumonia in your lung’. I ended up in there for eight days. I was in critical care the whole time.”
He was not well enough to leave until 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. To get out of it was just a relief. Just being in that environment and experiencing it all, seeing how ill people are, and even myself, being an athlete but still seeing how vulnerable I could be. It was a real eye opener for myself and my family. You realise that at the end of the day it comes down to your health.
“At the start I wasn’t even thinking about football. 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 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.”
Once Dykes had the strength he started doing laps of the hospital to get his fitness back
Once Dykes had the strength he started doing laps of the hospital to get his fitness back
ROSS MACDONALD/SNS
Dykes is married and has a five-year-old son and two teenage stepdaughters, and the whole episode was equally harrowing for his family. “The kids came into hospital with her to see me a couple of days after I went in and I still wasn’t great. Them seeing me like that was a big shock for everyone. My little man wasn’t quite aware of what was going on but once he saw me it was a big shock. Now I use it to scare him 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!
“It did make me appreciate things. It was a hard time for all of us. You can’t ever write off your health, that comes before everything else. Sometimes [in the past] I would try to batter through and try to play with illnesses and play when I shouldn’t but next time I might actually take a step back. I have to think about what could happen.”
Ironically Dykes – who is heavily tattooed – has a fear of needles and blood and always has been uncomfortable about hospitals. “The staff were brilliant. 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. Funny enough, with all my tattoos, I have an issue with needles and blood. 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.”
The specialist who has helped with his treatment did all the necessary checks and cleared Dykes to play again. The pneumonia had cleared and he lacks only full match sharpness. He did not play between January 21 and March 11, missing seven of QPR’s Championship fixtures. He has since started three times and completed his first full 90 minutes against Birmingham City on Saturday.
Dykes should earn his 27th Scotland cap against Cyprus in Saturday’s opening Euro 2024 qualifier at Hampden. The Scotland manager Steve Clarke attended one of his QPR comeback games and was pleasantly surprised by how fit he looked. “It was quite nerve-wracking going into that first game because I only started training with the team on the Tuesday and the plan wasn’t for me to start on the Saturday. Going into the game I was thinking ‘oof, this could be a bit dicey, hopefully I do all right here’. But I felt all right. There were a few times I felt out of breath, it’s a bit different playing a game compared to training. You just have to get those minutes in your legs and get those deep breaths. But I got through it.”
Health
