ROY Hodgson has spoken about last weekend’s health scare which forced him to miss Crystal Palace’s 3-1 defeat at Aston Villa.
The Eagles boss was taken to hospital in the build-up to the game to find out the cause of the problem, leaving Paddy McCarthy to take charge at Villa Park
Hodgson had no choice but to follow the game on radio while undergoing those tests and revealed he recovered quite quickly from the problem.
Now the veteran manager is focusing on taking on former club Fulham tomorrow, pointing out the test results were so impressive he is feeling even more optimistic than before about his own health.
Hodgson said: “It was frustrating and it was very disappointing.“Even to this day – after all the excellent treatment I received, all the tests and the way people were racing around to look after and check on me – even to this day people can’t be 100 percent certain what caused that attack which put me suddenly in a hospital after expecting to have lunch and go to the game.
“Luckily the initial recovery was pretty good and pretty quick, so as a result me listening to the radio was a frustrating experience.
“But as I say, I was very well taken care of and quite rightly in the hospitals they start from the worst scenario and work downwards.
“If it was simply a virus or bacteria (infection) what’s the problem.
“But they work from further down. How’s the heart? How’s the lungs?
“They work through all that and loads of blood tests.
“The good news for me is they came out on my side, so in actual fact I feel more confident than I ever that I can be out on that (training) field a little bit longer.”
Hodgson certainly got a different perspective being forced to tune in to the game on the radio, not something he would recommend to any of his fellow managers.
The Palace boss said: “The attack was sufficiently strong that for a couple of hours I got taken to this really good NHS hospital, Good Hope in Sutton Coldfield.
“My major concern then is what the hell is going on? Why am I feeling like this?
“But luckily an hour or so later by 3pm I was feeling much, much better. I wouldn’t say perfectly well, I don’t know, because they were taking tests all the time with pulse rates, oxygen etc. So I can’t say by 3pm I was great, but I certainly was fine in terms of being more than keen to listen on the radio.
“I must say, if you are a manager, they do a good job these radio reporters.
“They make it very exciting but the problem is every time Aston Villa had the ball, the way they were talking it was as if they were going to score.
“But if you are watching on TV you would think, ‘That is no problem, he isn’t going to score from that one’.
“My advice to managers if they find themselves in that situation is get yourself a TV view, otherwise you might need those heart tests!”
Jordan Ayew and Marc Guehi are both available for selection tomorrow against Fulham.
Long-term absentee Michael Olise has encountered a slight problem on his road to recovery, although Hodgson revealed it wasn’t anything serious.
The Palace chief said: “He had a setback. I don’t know how serious one can say it was because to be fair when the injury happened we were told it was going to be between three and four months.
“There wasn’t much chance of him being back before then.
“He worked very hard and got himself in a position where people thought maybe he could take some part in training.
“Unfortunately that was when there was a slight hiccup, a slight setback but he is working well on that, as is Matheus Franca.
“They are both online if you like to come back very soon.”
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