ADAM Clayton, the Middlesbrough midfielder, has paid tribute to NHS staff after his father emerged from a 51-day coma to recover from coronavirus.

Clayton senior was this week clapped out of ICU at North Manchester General Hospital after falling seriously ill and being placed on a ventilator.

Steven remains in hospital, but is on the road to recovery. A video was released on Twitter of him with nursing staff, who said: “We’ve fixed him”.

And, speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live this morning, Clayton admitted: “To see him talking, moving, on the road to recovery brought a tear to the eye.

“We’ve watched the video at least 50 times in the last few hours.

“He’s been in intensive care, the surprising thing is he’s already been in intensive care in an induced coma 22 years ago and was just as close to passing away back then.

“He had underlying health conditions, so there were days when we wondered if we would get the worst news.

“He managed to stick in and the doctors and nurses never gave up on him.

“It was getting to the point where one day his heart failed and he came back, his kidney went, his lung went, every two days something was going wrong.’’

 

 

The midfielder added: “I spoke to the doctor as asked to be told straight ‘do I tell my mum what’s coming’ and his response was that it wasn’t brilliant, it was lower than 50-50 but in my head it was lower than that and I thought it was less than ten per cent.

“So 50-50 was a kind of weird relief and I know the mentality my dad has. I didn’t stop worrying, but I knew he would come through at 50-50.’’

Clayton has recently become a dad and he has been unable to see his mother while his dad has been in hospital.

He admitted: “Mum is the silent side of it, I couldn’t go and give her a cuddle, she’s got my younger brother in the house and I’ve just got a newborn which has made it better for me as I got her to attend to.

“It’s not nice for mum, you can’t speak to the person in hospital and can only speak to the medical team at the right times.

“It’s tough day to day for the person who has the loved ones in there.’’