Ex-Portsmouth man Eoin Hand: A priest read me my last rites - I’m still here 23 years later

The Pompey Hall of Famer, who amassed 307 appearances and 14 goals for the Blues over two spells, had been taken to hospital with acute pancreatitis.

Such was the severity of his health situation, it was later incorrectly reported that Hand had died.

And in a 2017 interview for Played Up Pompey Too, the former Republic of Ireland boss revealed the full extent of that awful period of his life.

‘In August 1997 a priest read me my last rites following hospitalisation with acute pancreatitis. I was told one in five survive – I was that one,’ he told Played Up Pompey Too.

‘I was an accident waiting to happen, drinking too much and had stopped eating, living like a zombie. My head was in the sand, but the problems always came back the next day.

‘A few months later, while visiting my brother in South Africa, a correspondent from The Irish Times, Peter Byrne, rang up my brother.

‘He said: “Sorry to hear about Eoin”. To which my brother asked what he was referring to.

‘The reporter continued: “It has been reported that he’s died”. My brother replied: “Well he’s not, he’s sat here beside me!”.

‘There were phone calls to my girlfriend, Paula, who would become my second wife, sending commiserations and asking when the funeral was.

‘On another occasion, I was at Tolka Park for a game, having a cup of tea in the press room, when Charlie Stuart, a reporter, came in and said in his Belfast accent “I was up all night writing your obituary and you’re still alive!”.

‘It turns out the reports originated at Waterlooville Golf Club and then appeared in The News, before being picked up by the Yorkshire Post and then the Irish papers. Mind you, I can’t be angry – if there’s a choice between it being real or not, I would take the latter!

‘Looking back I don't have regrets. Granted, some of my decisions from a personal point of view were wrong, but if I had to do it again, I certainly wouldn’t lose the Pompey part of it.

‘I remember, in May 1973, Ron Tindall was replaced by John Mortimore, who was very different to managers I’d previously come across and a little strange.

‘He was a real gentleman who paid a great deal of attention to detail, but there was no passion to him.

‘Sometimes you have to talk rough to players, it’s part of it, but he couldn’t do that, he wouldn't even dream of doing that. It would be “Now boys, let’s do our stretches. Does anybody want to go and use the toilets before we go out training?”.

‘During one match, an opponent kicked out and caught me in the nether regions as we both fell to the floor following a challenge. Now that really hurt and I went crazy, I spent the remainder of the game trying to kill him – I wanted revenge.

‘After the match, Mortimore asked: ‘What do you think you were doing, what were you trying to achieve in the last 10-15 minutes?’.

‘I replied “How would you like a kick in the balls?”, referring to what had happened.

‘Well, our manager looked alarmed: “How dare you threaten me, I will see you in the office tomorrow”. The lads burst out laughing, they knew what I was trying to say.

‘We met the following day and Mortimore said “Right, I am fining you, I am suspending you, you cannot threaten me”.

‘Obviously I explained the mix-up and he replied “You meant to say you were kicked in the testicles? Oh – you should have said”.

‘It makes me smile thinking about it – I always smile while remembering my Pompey days.’

Eoin Hand made 307 Pompey appearances and scored 14 goals from October 1968 until March 1976, and November 1977 until May 1979.

Played Up Pompey Too, released in 2017, is still available from Amazon. While Played Up Pompey Three, which contains more of your favourite Blues players, is out in September.

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