Stuart Pearce insisted he feels ‘absolutely brilliant’ after speaking for the first time on talkSPORT since a health scare.
England legend and popular talkSPORT pundit Pearce fell ill last Monday during a flight from Las Vegas to London Heathrow.
He was given treatment by Virgin Atlantic staff and the flight was diverted to St John’s in Canada.
Pearce has been recovering in hospital after watching his beloved Warrington Wolves play Wigan Warriors in Vegas.
And appearing on White and Jordan on Tuesday, he was in good spirits and even able to poke fun at Arsenal legend Martin Keown.
He said: “Absolutely brilliant, I went to meet my maker last week and it wasn’t God, it was actually Lord Jordan sitting in his seat that I actually had to meet, but he said, ‘Your time is not up big fella,’ and he sent me away.
“So in all seriousness, I’m in good form, on the flight I had chest pains and stuff like that, the crew on Virgin were brilliant, they took care of me fantastically and then said, ‘Look, we’re not going to take the chance travelling across the Atlantic, we’re going to drop you off’.
“So we’re down in St John’s Newfoundland, and have been here for ten days now I think, five days in hospital and just a few days out of hospital.
“The only downside is our bags went on to London and the only thing that we were left with was actually Martin Keown’s autobiography.
“You know when things can’t get any worse, you’re stuck with Keown’s autobiography for the duration.”
Nottingham Forest and Manchester City fans joined in for a minute’s applause for Pearce during their Premier League clash on Saturday.
Both sets of supporters were heard chanting ‘Psycho’ in honour of the former defender who played for both clubs during his career.
‘Get well soon Stuart’ read a large message on the big screen at the City Ground whilst other banners of support appeared in the crowd.
Pearce added: “I can’t speak highly enough I’ve got to say, we’ve had people looking after us, Carol’s been brilliant looking after us, I’ve been fortunate enough to watch a few games.
“The Forest game against Man City was very, very humbling, I saw that and the bits and pieces that come out from that and thank you for your two messages and everybody else that sent messages of support, it is very, very humbling.”
Pearce kickstarted his career at non-league side Wealdstone before a move to the top flight of English football with Coventry City in 1983.
Just two years later, he signed for Forest under the legendary Brian Clough and made 522 appearances over 12 years.
He won two League Cups and two Full Members’ Cups, and was named as the club’s Player of the Season on three occasions.
Pearce left Forest in 1997 ahead of spells at West Ham, Newcastle United and City.
His international career is also highly regarded as he earned 78 caps with the England national team.
The defender played at three major tournaments and even scored a penalty in the quarter-final shootout win over Spain at Euro 1996.
Pearce had a managerial spell at City before taking to the England U21s and then Great Britain for the 2012 London Olympics.
He returned to England as caretaker boss and then took the reins at Forest ahead of two assistant tenures to David Moyes at West Ham.
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