England football legend Stuart Pearce has done his first public event since his dramatic mid-air health scare … and it was in Huddersfield.

The 62-year-old star – who played at Nottingham Forest under Brian Clough – was at Laund Hill Community Club in Salendine Nook last night (Friday, March 15) for his event Up Close And Personal and the audience loved every minute.

He told story after story from his playing days, covering everything from his penalty miss in the 1990 World Cup and his redemption when he thumped a penalty home in the 1996 Euros at Wembley along with lots of tales about legendary manager Brian Clough and one of the game’s greatest ever characters, Paul Gascoigne, who he played alongside.

Stuart appeared just 24 hours after flying back from Canada following a mid-air health scare which made national headline news.

He was taken to hospital after suffering a medical emergency on a plane flying from the USA to the UK on Sunday, March 2. The plane diverted to St John’s International Airport in Canada where Stuart was in hospital for several days and only just landed back in England on Thursday, 24 hours before he made the journey north to Huddersfield.

Stuart was suffering chest pains on board with his heart racing to 155 beats per minute – massively above a normal rate of between 60 to 100 beats per minute.

After a few days in hospital medics stopped his heart to reboot it and get it beating normally again and, since then, he’s felt absolutely fine.

He’s taken all the drama very much in his stride.

“It’s just part and parcel of life,” he said. “Things happen. I’m pretty fit and there’s no history of this kind of thing in my family so let’s carry on.”

Stuart’s a massive rugby league fan and follows Warrington Wolves after he saw their coach at the time, Tony Smith, give a great motivational speech to the England football coaches when Stuart was involved in the England Under 21 set-up around 15 years ago.

He asked to watch Warrington Wolves train, became hooked and has followed them ever since. He was at the John Smith’s Stadium to watch them beat Huddersfield Giants 20-12 in mid February.

Stuart said: “I love the excitement, the action and the honesty of the players. There’s no diving in rugby league. It’s a great sport that doesn’t get the praise it should.”

Stuart says the two questions he’s asked most are what was it like to be managed by Brian Clough and to play in the same team as Paul Gascoigne … and he certainly gave the audience great value for money as he revealed all about them.

“I agree with those who say Cloughie was the best manager England never had,” he said. “Winning two back to back European cups was a phenomenal achievement on top of his fantastic league success. He was revered at the time, as he is now so many years later with his cult status continuing to grow and grow.”

Stuart made 401 appearances for Nottingham Forest during a 12-year stint, gaining 78 caps with England.

People travelled from as far away as Southampton for the event which was organised by Huddersfield-based BDx Promotions.

A company spokesman said: “What really came across strongly was Stuart’s humility and that he has never forgotten his roots despite all he’s achieved throughout his career. He’s a really genuine bloke, everyone could relate to him and the feedback from the audience was brilliant.”

A raffle featuring England shirts signed by Stuart raised £940 towards Laund Hill Community Club funds.

Written by ANDY HIRST who runs his own Yorkshire freelance journalism agency AH! PR (https://ah-pr.com/) specialising in press releases, blogging, website content, copywriting and ghost-writing autobiographies.