PEJIC REVEALS ANGUISH OF HIS NIGHTMARE SPELL
MIKE Pejic has opened up for the first time about the injury that finished his playing career - and which very nearly finished him.
The former Stoke defender, now a Sentinel columnist and radio summariser, missed out on Aston Villa’s famous title triumph in 1980/81 after suffering an injury that was only diagnosed as a hernia problem some eight years later.
His revelation comes in a new book about Villa in that period which has hit the bookshelves ahead of this weekend’s clash between Pejic’s two former clubs.
In the book, he states: “It was horrific, having treatment every day. I felt completely alone. The longer it went on I was forgotten. Even your mates start to walk past and don’t even notice you.
“What made it worse was that I was travelling from Wales and staying at various hotels in the area, so I couldn’t settle.
“You become a lonely figure sitting in the stand watching the matches week after week. I just didn’t feel part of it and never connected with Villa’s success at all.”
And one day, when attempting an unsuccessful comeback in a reserve game, he heard a fan in the stand shout: ‘Pejic, you cheat!’
“That hurt me deeply. I will never forget that. It was just one man, but I was so low at the time that was all it took to knock me.
“I wasn’t in a good place and I had a breakdown towards the end of my twoyear contract.
“I was driving back from the Villa after a meeting with Ron Saunders at Bodymoor Heath.
“He asked if I was able to go out and train with the lads. I said no. I would have loved to, but my injury didn’t allow me to.
“I will never forget driving back on the M6, before the Stoke turn-off at Junction 15. I pulled over and just broke down. I couldn’t drive.
“So many little things had just snowballed until I couldn’t cope any longer. Some of it was harmless banter to the lads, but to me it was like a dagger going in and I was hurting deeply.
“I would be in the office claiming my expenses and a couple of the lads would take the p***, because I was claiming my money but wasn’t playing.
“I know they were only joking, but at that time I took the slightest comment very personally. I felt people thought I was a liar and a cheat.
“It took me two years to recover from this breakdown. I was in a black hole, my own world, and nothing comes in there with you. I don’t know how my wife coped with me.
“I was gone and I thought many times about doing something stupid. It was only my daughter being into show-jumping that kept my head above water, as I drove her around the country to competitions.
“My other saviour was a teacher at my kids’ school in Wales asking me to help out with the sports. I was shaking the first time I taught them, but over time that was the beginning of my way back to sanity and normality.” ■ TICKET to the Moon, Aston Villa: The Rise and Fall of a European Champion, by Richard Sydenham, is published by decoubertin and is available at most good bookshops and online at www.amazon.co.uk
I did think about doing something stupid. I was gone. I was in a black hole.