EMMETT BACKS TOWN’S SHOW OF HEART
HARROGATE TOWN have continued preparations for life in the National League by receiving heart checks – and for one player the scans are particularly poignant.
Midfielder Jack Emmett, 24, sadly only knows too well the danger heart problems can pose after losing his twin brother Alex, who had diabetes, to cardiac arrest aged only 18. Then in 2016, his university friend Daniel Wilkinson collapsed on the pitch with a suspected heart attack playing for Shaw Lane and died in hospital.
“I was with Dan at Loughborough Uni, we played football together there and were on the same course,” Emmett told The NLP. “It was just a couple of months after we had graduated that he had a heart attack. That was pretty close to home.
“Knowing Dan, he was a very fit lad, he ate right and his body was a temple. He was the last person you’d think it would happen to, which makes you realise it can happen to anybody.
“It’s only when it happens in high-profile cases like with Fabrice Muamba that it gets a lot of attention and people start thinking about it. Generally with young lads they don’t think it would happen to them or is something they think about. Since it happened to Dan, it’s always been in the back of my mind.”
The entire Harrogate squad visited the private BMI The Duchy Hospital on Friday afternoon.
The players were strapped up to the specialist heart monitors to check their circulatory systems as part of the club’s ongoing commitment to health and fitness.
“The test looks at your heart rate, sees how it’s beating and looks for anything abnormal,” said Emmett. “It’s really reassuring to get the tests done and know that there’s nothing wrong with you.”
Manager Simon Weaver added: “We’ve a lot of young men with young families; we need to make sure they are safe and to know that we care about them.”