Glenn Hoddle says he is ‘friends for life’ with hero sound engineer who did CPR

Glenn Hoddle revealed how he is ‘friends for life’ with the sounds engineer who saved his life by doing CPR for eight minutes following his cardiac arrest. 

Former England manager legend Hoddle ‘died for 60 seconds’ when he fell backward and smashed his head while filming at the BT Sport east London studios on his 61st birthday in October 2018. 

Sound engineer Simon Daniels rushed to perform CPR on the football legend while more than a dozen people phoned the London Ambulance Service and Hoddle was airlifted to hospital. 

Mr Hoddle today praised Daniels on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, revealing how he now feels ‘absolutely great’ after the sound engineer saved his life, adding: ‘I think the sign of a good CPR is how many ribs you break, and he broke seven, so he did a good job. He did a great job.’   

Host Richard Madeley said: ‘You’re not doing it properly unless you crack a few ribs.’

Mr Daniels said: ‘I’ve now got on my CV that I broke Glenn Hoddle’s ribs.’

Father-of-three Hoddle goes on to say that if Mr Daniels had not been on duty that day, ‘I wouldn’t be sitting here now, it’s as simple as that’.

Richard Madeley said he wished Mr Daniels had been in his family house years ago when his father came home, collapsed with a heart attack and died in his mother’s arms because ‘she didn’t know anything about CPR’. 

Hoddle does not remember large parts of the day  – so he and Mr Daniels met roughly three months after the incident at the England legend’s house.  

Hoddle said: ‘I remember asking Simon, saying how many of these have you done? And he said, no you’re the first. I thought he did sort of loads of them you know but he was absolutely – everyone said he was absolutely fantastic and of course I owe him my life.’

Richard Madeley said: ‘He must be like your guardian angel.’

Hoddle said: ‘Oh without a doubt. We’re going to be friends for life obviously.’

Mr Daniels praised everyone else involved, including crew at BT, the London ambulance service, police and hospitals.   

Hoddle said it was important to teach CPR in schools so that everyone can learn how to save a life. 

He had suffered cardiac arrest after playing a game of football while appearing as a guest on Live Saturday Morning Savage show.  

Mr Daniels said he had been in the sound control room when he heard someone shout ‘help, help!’ and he ran out to see someone lying on the floor. 

He then realised it was a ‘seriously unwell’ Glenn Hoddle who was lying on the floor without a pulse. 

‘Everyone was in a lot of shock,’ he said. ‘You’ve got a studio like this full of crew and they’ve just seen Glenn collapse. 

‘The key thing was to be calm, to make sure the ambulance has been called – I think London ambulance service said there was at least 12 calls went into them.’ 

Hoddle is one of England’s most well-loved footballing figures. As manager he took Chelsea to the FA Cup final, as the Spurs boss the club got to the League Cup final, and he was also responsible for Swindon Town getting into the Premiership.    

He received major surgery to have a heart bypass to restore blood flow at St Bartholomew’s Hospital in London two weeks after the incident.

A bypass operation involves taking a vein from a leg or arm and grafting it on to the heart to act as an alternative route to keep blood flowing to the vital organ.