FIVE minutes to four last Sunday, and Rafael Benitez was as comfortable as he had felt all weekend. The pain from his recent surgery was still there, along with a nagging sense of nausea that refused to go away, but having made the difficult decision not to travel to Swansea City to join up with his Newcastle United squad, he was confident everything was in hand.

The players knew exactly what they were meant to be doing as they looked to record a first away win of the season. The coaching staff had been through every possible scenario and were confident their tactics were right. Benitez had made a series of calls with Antonio Gomez Perez in the Liberty Stadium stands, with his messages being relayed to Paco de Miguel Moreno in the technical area.

Settled on his sofa, the Newcastle boss watched his players take to the field on Sky Sports. There were butterflies in his stomach, but after a testing weekend that had seen him conclude he was in too much pain to take up Mike Ashley’s offer of a helicopter ride to South Wales, everything was going to be okay.

The game kicked off, and Newcastle settled reasonably well. Suddenly, though, all the meticulous planning was undone. Three minutes into the game, and with Benitez just about to pick up his phone to relay a message, the screen went blank. There have not been many occasions during his managerial career when the Spaniard has suffered a poor reception, but this was one such occasion at the most inopportune of times.

“I was talking to Lee (Charnley) during the morning because Mike offered the helicopter and we were preparing everything just in case,” said Benitez. “Then I was talking to the pilot and asking him how windy it would be. Antonio was saying, ‘Oh, it’s very windy here’.

“Everything was prepared and everyone was doing their part to be sure I could cope. Everything was arranged, but little by little, I was a bit more sick. I said, ‘If I go, with the helicopter, and then the car, and then one hour in the stadium, and then I feel sick, there will be a problem more than a solution. So I said, ‘Forget about that’.

“So the decision was made to stay at home. My daughter was helping, and the television was ready. But then there was a storm and, all of a sudden, it was like, ‘Woah’. There was a storm, and all of a sudden, the Sky was not working.

“It was three or four minutes into the game, and things just went blank. Luckily, my daughter went into the other room to see if the other television was working, and it was.”

The rest of the first half passed without incident, with Newcastle more than holding their own in the game. Benitez found himself heading every ball, thrusting for every tackle, even if his daughter was trying to keep him under control.

“I couldn’t really move, but I was cheering,” he said. “I was writing things down, but I couldn’t really move. To be fair, it is more difficult like that than when you are there.

“When you are down there in the dugout, you go out and move around, and shout and say silly things. I had to be careful. My daughter was laughing, she was telling me one time to calm down when we were counter-attacking.”

Benitez’s means of communicating with the rest of his staff had been carefully planned out, and was working fine until his backroom team headed towards the Liberty Stadium dressing rooms at the interval.

“I was in contact with Antonio right through the week,” he said. “I was in contact all the time. I knew about every training session and we were analysing the sessions before and after. I was watching some games, and as we got closer to the game, I was more in contact with Antonio, Mikel (Antia) and Paco about everything.

“It worked well, but the worst thing for me was when Antonio went into the dressing room because I couldn’t be in contact with him then. It was only then that we did not have communication.”

Benitez freely admits his emotions got the better of him when Jamaal Lascelles scored Newcastle’s winner, and he spoke with his squad via speaker-phone at the end of the game.

He is now completely healed – he joked he could make a playing comeback if he had another couple of operations because he has lost so much weight – and is grateful for all the messages of support he received during his recuperation.

“I want to say thank you to everyone,” he said. “To all the people here at the club - the players and staff - and all the fans for their messages. It was a special situation and everyone was showing sympathy, I appreciate that. We won, so everything was good, but it was not an easy week.”