One minute I was about to sign for Arsenal, the next I was fighting for my life in hospital

RISING STAR’S GUNNERS DREAM

JAMIE BROOKS EXCLUSIVE ‘My body was was paralysed. I had turned into a physical wreck’

was discharged on Sunday morning, told I had a 48-hour virus.

“But I was nauseous through the day and in tears with pain. Within one minute of the doctor turning up at my house, I was straight back into hospital.

“Eventually, they worked out I had Guillain-barre syndrome. Your nerves effectively eat themselves. Your body turns on you.

“There were about 10 doctors around my bed, who told my mum I was going to intensive care. I was gasping for breath and they put me into a coma.

“Three days later, I woke up. My whole body was paralysed. I was still in pain, only conscious. They were giving me morphine.

“The machines were breathing for me. I was hallucinating. I couldn’t speak or move.

“Three days before, I’d played for Oxford, scored a goal in front of 10,000 people, then next thing I knew I was fighting for my life.

“They told my parents, ‘This is 50-50. We don’t know if he’ll get through this’. If I hadn’t been so fit, I wouldn’t have.

“I was like that for 69 days. They changed the drugs and I ended up on horse tranquiliser Fentanyl. It took the pain away, then I’d wake up in pain again. I had a Hickman line put direct into my heart, so they could pump drugs more quickly. All my veins had packed up.

“Then, my little finger twitched – the first sign of my nerves regrowing. Markus Babbel had it at Liverpool, but it only affected his legs. He got in contact with me, sending a letter, but I was in a horrendous state.” Brooks lost three stone, but couldn’t walk. He had to re-learn. With the help of Oxford physio Neil Sullivan, he eventually returned to first-team action. But his body could not cope with the demands and he could hardly walk for two days. He said: “Looking back and thinking a club like that wanted me, Arsenal were the team any neutral wanted to watch because of the way they played. So I must have had something about me.

“And they did get in touch. On the morning of their FA Cup Final against Chelsea, a bunch of bright red flowers turned up at my intensive care unit.

“It had been sent by Arsene Wenger and the note read, ‘Get well soon, Jamie, we’re all thinking of you. We’ll see you soon’.

“If I’d signed that summer I’d have had two seasons playing alongside some of the greatest players they’ve ever had.

“I struggled with that thought for a while. When I turned 30, it hit me and I went through a time when I was depressed and had to have counselling. I don’t think I got over the illness properly.

“So, yes, it could have been me. But I’m still alive, I’ve got three beautiful lads – the medics said I might not even have children.

“I’m back on track with a steady job and I’ve come to terms with it.

“And any time I think about what might have been, I’ve got a shirt on the wall to look at.”