Cup legend Peter happy to be living the dream

PETER RODRIGUES, still the only man to lift a major trophy for Southampton, admits he is lucky to be alive.

The former Saints captain will be at Wembley today, 41 years after he held aloft the FA Cup following the 1-0 victory over Manchester United.

It is a day he never thought he would see and with good reason.

Rodrigues had to spend four months in hospital after open heart surgery and now has a defibrillator fitted.

“I’m lucky to be here,” he said, and then added: “I had a little hiccup with my ticker.”

Ex-Wales full-back Rodrigues was on holiday in Spain and picked up what he thought was a virus.

“I went to the doctors with my wife Kate and they put me on a bed and did a check on my heart,” he said last night.

“My organs were shutting down because my heart rate was too quick and blood wasn’t being brought to the right places.

“It became an emergency, they zapped me and sent me straight to hospital. I had cardiac arrhythmia which is a dangerous irregular heartbeat.”

He was flown from Castellon by air ambulance to Southampton where he underwent emergency surgery.

Rodrigues says: “I was in hospital in 2013 for four months. I had open heart surgery and then had the defibrillator put in which gives out shocks when things are going wrong.

“The last time it went off was in May and I was rushed to hospital in an ambulance. It went off four times in a minute. But it was a false alarm.

“It keeps me alive, though, that’s the main thing.”

Rodrigues, 73, has fond memories of leading Southampton to FA Cup glory in 1976.

“We had a great blend of youth and experience. And we had some real characters like Mick Channon and Peter Osgood,” he said.

“We were total underdogs, 6-1 shots.

“After the final, some of the boys went to the Playboy Club. I was tucked up in bed with the early editions of the papers and two bottles of champagne.

“We were all good buddies. We trained hard and knew how to have fun.

“I remember at training when one of the boys would start making moo sounds like a cow.

“Manager Lawrie McMenemy didn’t have a clue what it meant.

“We did – it was a signal to meet up at the Cow Herd pub for a beer after training!”

Now Rodrigues, who still lives in Southampton, hopes Saints can lift the EFL Cup: “We’ll have to play exceptionally well but we can win – no one gave us a chance in 1976 either.”