Smith facing triple heart bypass

Liverpool legend Tommy Smith will have a triple heart bypass following the heart attack that hospitalised him almost a fortnight ago.

Smith, 62, collapsed with chest pains while mowing the lawn at his Crosby home and, although he is recovering well in Fazackerley Hospital, he now faces an operation.

The former Anfield skipper, who made 637 appearances for the club, said: “I have been in a while now and I feel an awful lot better. But I know that shortly I will be having a triple by-pass. I am not really looking forward to it.

“I just want to get the operation done and start living and enjoy life again.”

Smith told Liverpoolfc.tv: “I was terrified when it first happened. I suddenly felt a pain in my chest and thought, ’I’ll have a rest’.

“I sat down and looked at my watch. It was around 3pm. I thought I’ll give it another five minutes and I put my head in my hands. The next thing I looked at my watch and it was a quarter past three.

“I thought, ’Where did a quarter of an hour go?’ There must have been something wrong with me because I lost 15 minutes of my life.

“I went into the house and told Sue, my wife, I wasn’t feeling so good. I had this terrible, burning pain in my chest. She was on the phone to Darren, our son, who came round.

“The first thing he did was to ring the ambulance. When they came, they immediately said: ’You have had a heart attack.’

“I couldn’t believe it. I thought I was as fit as I could be at the age of 62. Anybody who has had a heart attack knows it is terrifying. I just didn’t know what to do.”

Smith is one of the club’s most famous servants, a hero of the Bill Shankly era and famed for the ferocity of his tackling.

Born just a mile from Anfield, he joined the club ground staff as a 15-year-old in 1960.

Smith went on to become the first Liverpool captain to lift a European trophy when Bill Shankly’s side won the League and UEFA Cup double in 1973.

He headed the decisive second goal in the 1977 European Cup Final on his 600th appearance.