Tony Cottee: Former West Ham and Everton striker reveals on talkSPORT he suffered a brain haemorrhage earlier

Former West Ham, Everton and England striker Tony Cottee has revealed he suffered a brain haemorrhage earlier this year during an exclusive interview with talkSPORT.

Cottee, who scored almost 300 goals during a superb 19-year career, opened up on his health scare while co-hosting Wednesday’s Sports Breakfast with Alan Brazil.

He revealed that what started as a small pain in his forehead ended up being something much more serious, and resulted in him being hospitalised in early July.

Cottee said: “July 8 this year, I was meant to be filming an advert for Sky. I was staying in London because it’s a long way for me to get in for 8:30am.

“I’m in my room the night before not doing anything out of the ordinary, and I got a small pain to begin with in the middle of my forehead, and within five minutes it was the worst headache of my life.

“I then had really severe neck pains, and through the night I was sick four times.

“Obviously I’m meant to be working in the morning.

“I rang my missus and told her I’d been ill through the night and she asked if there was anyone at the hotel. Luckily for me Phil Thompson was there, so I rang him and asked him to come to my room.

“So he came to my room and said, ‘wow, you look awful!’

“Thommo arranged for a doctor to come to me as I was in bed, and they transferred me to West Middlesex Hospital where they did a brain scan on me.

“Originally they though I had meningitis which was scary, and then they found I had a small bleed on my brain – basically a small brain haemorrhage.

“Immediately I was transferred to Charing Cross Hospital, and I can’t speak highly enough of the nurses and doctors; they were unbelievable at both West Middlesex and Charing Cross.

“They did all the tests… I had a lumbar puncture, I had an angiogram, I had an MRI scan. They wanted to check because I could have had an aneurysm, I could have had a stroke, I could have had a heart attack – I could have dropped dead.

“I was lucky, even though they said it was a major trauma.

“I can’t fly for the rest of the year, and I had to have six weeks’ rest. I couldn’t work while waiting for the results to come through.

“They said they are confident it was a one-off; they said you can have a one-off experience and never have it again.

“They don’t know [what brought it on], but it’s been a bit of a wake-up call to be honest.

“I’m 54 and I had four medicals before last Christmas and I was fine – there was nothing. But within eight months I’m in hospital and it was really worrying.

“Tony Gale is a really good friend of mine and he was really good, bringing my wife to the hospital.

“I didn’t tell everyone what happened because I’m not that type of guy. I’m a bit old school; if you’re ill you get on with it and deal with it and move on.

“If you experience that pain in your forehead and neck, you’ve got to go to the hospital.

“I knew I was in trouble, and when you’re in a hotel on your own… I couldn’t walk or drive to the hospital, so I just had to wait until morning.

“For the first time, and hopefully only time, in my life I was really worried. It was a scary time.

“But everyone around me was really supportive and I think it’s good to talk about it just to get it out my system.

“And to make others aware. We are of a certain generation where we don’t go to the doctors or the hospital unless it’s an emergency.

“But at times I think you need to do it.”

You can watch Tony Cottee’s full interview with talkSPORT, above