A FORMER Bolton Rugby Union Club player was rushed to hospital after he collapsed and fell on the pitch.

Peter Kenyon, aged 74, suffered a heart attack while watching Bolton vs De La Salle.

The honorary life member, who played for the club in the 1970s and 1980s as a scrum-half, was at the match when he suddenly felt dizzy.

He said: “I woke up with my face in the grass and could hear the referee saying ‘we will have to move him, he is in the way of the match’. Then I went unconscious again.”

Mr Kenyon was taken to Salford Royal Hospital where he had a stent fitted and is now recovering at home.

The great-grandfather-of-three, said: “The doctors are expecting me to be perfectly fine. I have been inundated with messages from the rugby club. To be part of a rugby club is quite special. It is a wonderful environment. “De La Salle contacted the club to see how I was doing and passed on a really nice message and the club that we are playing this weekend found out about what had happened and sent a message to the club as well. “Rugby is more than just going out on a Saturday it is a community.”

Mr Kenyon said he and his friends, who are part of a group called the ‘compost corner’ and follow the first team, have now been able to have a laugh about the incident.He said: “It’s quite amusing really because 40 years ago, when I was a player, one of the other players had a heart attack and his heart actually stopped. I gave him the kiss of life and it started beating again.

“So for 40 years we have been taking the mick out of him that I gave him a kiss and I could hear him, when I collapsed saying ‘let me at him, I want to kiss him’.”

And the health scare hasn’t put Mr Kenyon off the game.

He added: “The guys are going up to Wigton for the next match but I have been told I have to listen to my wife who said ‘you are not going, it is too far away’ but if I don’t make that one I will definitely make the next one.”