STUART MILLAR ON THE MEND

“It was a bit of a shock, a week or so week before the Morton game I hadn’t been feeling great, we took training on the Wednesday and was still feeling bad and on the Friday I was in agony and drove myself to A&E where the doctors thought I was maybe appendicitis but that was ruled out. I was asked to go back a few days later. After a couple of days I was still in a bad way and again drove down to the hospital where one of the Doctors there finally spotted that I had a tear in the bowel tissue. “

“I was told that it would be a 10-15 minute operation which turned out to be a 5 hour one! It was discovered during surgery that I had a burst abscess which had leaked poison around my body. I was touch and go in there and my wife Catherine was worried sick, she had been ringing up to be told I would be going straight into Intensive care and then high dependency. I was in the hospital then for 16 days in recovery, for the first few days I was out for the count because of the medication but when I came round the frightening thing for me was realising that I was 15 minutes away from dying and at my age being a fit and healthy ex-footballer you start wondering what you have done wrong to be going through all that. I’m just thankful that they caught it in time, there were other factors that were going for me that night, had I have gone to my bed that night I would not have been around the following morning and driving down to the hospital when I did.”

“When Neil first came into the Hospital on the Monday after the operation he didn’t stay long he looked shocked which was understandable, apparently when he told the players what had gone on they looked really down, or maybe that’s just because wee Davey was being sold?! But after a few days we discussed the situation and we agreed that it would be best to get in a replacement for me whilst I was recovering. We agreed that we both got on well with Cowboy, he had always been available to offer advice, he was the first team captain at Dundee when I was just breaking into the Reserves there and with him being available at short notice too we approached him. I was pleased with the appointment but whoever came in it was going to be difficult at this stage of the season not knowing the players but John has done well and I was interested to read his interview on the Club Website, he is clearly relishing the role and bringing some important skills to the Club when it most needs them.”

“I feel that I have left the Club a bit in the lurch but when something like this happens there is very little you can do about it. I have an important appointment at the hospital on Friday with the Doctor to hopefully get the all clear, when, and only when I get that will I be in a more clear position to assess when I can get back to the Dugout but it will hopefully be sooner rather than later, I’m not a good armchair fan I was watching the TV with frustration on Saturday with the score at 1-0 for a lot of the time and then it suddenly went to 1-1 and full-time which was something. I am looking forward to getting back into the swing of things though.”

“I would also like to take time out to thank everyone who has sent their best wishes to me, I’ve read the messages on the message forum and I also received a card from the Stranraer Supporters Association the week after the operation which was very kind of them. I also read messages of support from the likes of Stevie Aitken in The Record which was heart warming and it has been lovely to receive cards and text messages from other Managers and friends throughout the game, even when their sides may not have been doing well they have taken time out to get in touch and they have been a great source of support in what has been a traumatic time for me.”

Interview (c) WWW.STRANRAERFC.ORG 2005