Luton Town captain Tom Lockyer has admitted the events of the 2023 Championship play-off final at Wembley still “eat him up” as he reflected on the collapse that saw him stretchered off early in the Hatters’ promotion-clinching win over Coventry.
Almost two years on, Lockyer has opened up on the moment that changed his life — not just professionally, but personally.
“It still doesn’t sit right with me,” he told Sky Sports, “We worked so hard over the season to get to that stage. I scored the goal in the semi-final to get to Wembley and after that, there was no celebrating. It was purely, just get your head on Wembley. Look, we’ve done nothing yet. We need to win or it’s a wasted season.”
Lockyer had been determined to savour the moment if promotion was secured. But less than 10 minutes into the match, he collapsed and was taken off the pitch.
“That all gets taken away from me and I never really had that moment with the fans after what we’d done that season,” he said. “That’s the one that really eats me up.”
Although Lockyer has since endured an even more serious cardiac arrest — collapsing again during a Premier League match at Bournemouth in December 2023 when he was technically dead for two minutes and 40 seconds as medics battled to save his life on the pitch — he said it’s the Wembley final that haunts him most.
“What happened at Bournemouth was far more serious, but the one at Wembley is the one I regret the most,” he said. “Regret’s probably the wrong word, but yeah.”
Asked what he remembers from the day, Lockyer said: “I just remember thinking in the warm-up, wow, it’s a really hot day. I’ve never really dealt too well with the heat anyway. But I started the game really well — won a few battles, had one cleared off the line from a corner — and I’m thinking, yeah, this is our day.
“Then I remember back-pedalling and going really light-headed. The next thing I knew, I woke up with the paramedics all around me. It felt like I woke up from a dream. It didn’t feel serious at all. They told me I’d collapsed and that I’d have to come off. I just burst into tears. I thought I’d let my team-mates down.”
Despite knowing there was nothing he could have done to prevent what happened, as he suffered an atrial fibrilation of the heart, Lockyer said the guilt lingered for a long time.
“For 20 years I was literally Tom Lockyer the footballer. It’s all I dedicated myself to. I didn’t want to leave football with any regrets. And now… I just don’t know how many more moments I’ll have to celebrate. So if I do get back on a football pitch, I’ll be celebrating the little wins, that’s for sure.”
Lockyer had been close to a return this season and a run-out with Luton’s under-21s, but he suffered a serious ankle ligament injury just before Christmas that required surgery, which effectively ended his hopes of playing for the Hatters as they battled unsuccessfully against a second consecutive relegation.
After an unwanted return to League One was confirmed for the football club, it was revealed that Lockyer is out of contract, but will continue his rehabilitation at The Brache.
Though his playing future remains uncertain, Lockyer has channelled his energy into a life-saving campaign with the British Heart Foundation to raise awareness of cardiac arrest and increase public access to defibrillators (FIBs). This weekend’s play-off finals will see each match kick-off a minute later to raise awareness of CPR training.
“This campaign has almost given me a little bit of distraction and a real sense of purpose,” Lockyer said. “We’ve had over 300,000 new lifesavers since it launched, and 80 FIBs have gone into local communities. Within a month, four of them were already used. That’s just amazing. I’m so thankful to Sky Bet and the British Heart Foundation. Without a shadow of a doubt, we’ve saved lives along the way.”
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