Lockyer on emotion of Bristol Rovers return and Wales dream

Tom Lockyer said he would have given anything to have had just "four minutes" on a football pitch during his two years out of the game, unsure if he would ever play again.

The Wales defender, 30, made his return two weeks ago for Bristol Rovers having not played a second of football since suffering a cardiac arrest during a Premier League match for Luton in December 2023.

It was the second time he had collapsed on the pitch within eight months after also having done so in the Championship play-off final at Wembley.

He re-signed for the League Two club where he started his career in October after two ankle operations further delayed his return.

"If I have four years in the game now which takes me to 34 - I would have snapped your hand off for four minutes on the pitch, that's where I was," Lockyer told BBC Radio Bristol.

"Growing up as a kid you don't think about being financially stress free, or the luxuries that football can bring - you think about playing in the Premier League, you think about playing for your boyhood club, you think about returning to the Gas after everything you've been through. Those are the things that drive you and get you up.

"When you've gone through two ankle operations, two heart operations, those are the things that inspire you and make you go that extra distance."

Already, Lockyer has played 122 minutes for Rovers in just two appearances - the 4-0 thrashing by Crawley in the league and the FA Cup win against Bromley last Saturday.

He started his career with the League Two club in their academy and broke into the first team under head coach Darrell Clarke, who is also now back in the dugout - and going back to where it all began was an easy decision for his comeback.

While the professional in Lockyer took over once he was standing on the pitch for his first game back and the referee's whistle blew, the moments before that were when the emotion came flooding out after such a long absence.

"Darrell said a little bit in his pre-match talk about myself and what I had to come through so that set me off a little bit," he said.

"Then after we done the handshakes and I got a little clap from the Gasheads I welled up a little bit then.

"As soon as the whistle went it was just really nice to get back into competing and try and win a game of football."

Lockyer is keen to reiterate that if it was not safe for him, he would not be back playing.

He now has a small defibrillator implanted in his chest and has had his heart monitored via an ECG (electrocardiogram) test for the past two years every time he exercises.

"I've said before, I don't want to be a hero that dies on a football pitch," he said.

"If there was any risk at all that I felt or my family felt or they weren't comfortable with anything, I wouldn't be doing it."

He is also not thinking much beyond playing for the Gas until the end of this season.

"What I didn't want to do was commit too long and be letting anyone down," he said.

"If I came back and was like, 'I'm not the same player I thought I was going to be, you don't have that desire, you don't have that fight in you' - I still feel like I've got that fight and that desire so what we will do is get to the end of the season and see from there," added Lockyer.

"I'm happy with how I've settled so far."

That being said, Lockyer has not given up the "dream" of pulling on a Wales shirt again.

Lockyer won 16 caps between 2017 and 2020 under then managers Chris Coleman and Ryan Giggs.

He said he turned down a League One club to go back to Bristol Rovers and did consider whether playing in the fourth tier would hinder his hopes of returning to the international set-up.

"That was probably the one thing about turning down a League One team that I was like, 'I hope I don't come to regret this', but it just felt right to come back here," Lockyer said.

He has worked as a pundit covering Wales matches over the past few years and watching Craig Bellamy's side in action has even inspired him to consider coaching down the line.

"I'm so patriotic and while I've been out I've loved covering Wales with the media," Lockyer added.

"I love talking Wales, I love what Craig Bellamy's done - it's inspired me to look into the coaching side because I've always said I never want to be a coach."