Wigan's Charlie Wyke tells inspiring story of Christian Eriksen-like comeback

Charlie Wyke has told the inspiring story of his return to professional football from a cardiac arrest that he suffered in November 2021 in a fascinating interview with Sky Sports this week.

The Wigan Athletic striker collapsed in training last year when his heart stopped beating for four minutes.

Miraculously, however, Latics coach Leam Richardson was on hand to help save Wyke’s life by performing CPR mere weeks after the management staff had received training on perfecting the life-saving response.

Wyke explained to Sky: “It was the scariest day of my life. I was just training as normal and then, all of a sudden, I’ve woken up on the floor, my sleeves cut off, with five staff looking over me. I had no idea what had happened.

“The last thing I remember was walking over to the manager to tell him I was going to collapse but I couldn’t get my words out. I then found out later it was actually the gaffer who started the CPR process and got me breathing again.

“That journey to the hospital in the ambulance was so scary. When I got told it was a cardiac arrest I instantly thought my football career was finished. I was absolutely devastated.”

Remarkably, Wigan’s club doctor who accompanied Wyke to the hospital on that most harrowing of days was none other than Jonathan Tobin, who had helped to save the life of Fabrice Muamba at White Hart Lane 10 years previously.

Tobin had been the club doctor at Bolton Wanderers on that particular occasion and took over CPR from manager Richardson on the day that Wyke collapsed last year.

The heroic doctor recalled: “The same with Fabrice, it was only afterwards it hit me. This was Charlie – not just another patient. He is a friend, a colleague, a team-mate. It really hit you emotionally. To