Lyndon Dykes opens up on health scare as emotional Scotland star reveals Steve Clarke contact from hospital

Lyndon Dykes has confessed he was “just happy to get through” his terrifying health scare.

The Scotland striker has opened up on sheer levels of emotion which overtook him as he ended up seriously ill in hospital in late January. Dykes spent eight days in critical care with pneumonia. Bold and brash on the park, the 27-year-old suddenly felt vulnerable and fearful. Dykes had never been in hospital before. Now he was surrounded by fellow patients, attached to drips and not sure what was coming next.

Playing football again wasn’t even on his mind. Just getting better was enough as he explained when looking back with searing realism. Dykes said: “I was happy just to get through it, to be honest. It was a tough time. I was playing with a bit of the illness for a week with QPR. I had sort of flu symptoms, a temperature, a cough, not feeling great.

“But I’m the type of person that tries to batter through, just take medicine and try to play. I played on the weekend against Swansea and was ill at half time. Then that Thursday, I tried to train and I knew then that something wasn’t quite right.

“By night, I was in critical care in the hospital. It was a bit of an emotional and crazy time for me. I’m an athlete, so I’m used to running around everywhere, but I couldn’t run 10 metres.

“So I was just happy to come out of it. For my family as well it was quite a tough time. It was crazy. Being at training in the morning, then going to see the specialist. You are going straight to hospital with that amount of pneumonia in your lung!

“I just couldn’t believe I was going into hospital, but I ended up in there for eight days, so it was as crazy as crazy. I was in critical care the whole time.

“The first few days were rough. The