Watford's Heurelho Gomes flashes back to neck injury nightmare

Watford's Brazilian keeper feared a broken neck following a collision with Craig Cathcart

WATFORD goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes has relived the moment he feared his neck had been broken.

 

Gomes will wear the gloves at Sunderland today just as he did at home to Norwich last week. That game came just seven days after he was treated for eight minutes on the pitch at Aston Villa after colliding with defender Craig Cathcart.

"I remember everything," he said. "I was feeling pain in my neck and that's what I was worried about. The physio was worried too. It's difficult to know what's going on when they put the protection on, you can't move.

"So the first thing I did was try to move my legs to see if everything was OK - and I was all right."

 

The ordeal was also traumatic for wife Flavia and sons Luiz, eight, and Flavio, 10. They were not at the match but were quickly informed by the player's agent.

And as the game was being broadcast live in Brazil, Gomes' family there were also anxious.

Hardest hit of all were his two sons, Flavio, 10 and Luiz, eight, with the latter a goalkeeper on the Hornets books, just like his father.

 

"They were very worried about me, more so because they didn't see the game," he said. "The boys started to cry, my wife said. They were afraid about the situation.

"But I said to Luiz, 'it's normal, part of the game, you don't have to be worried about that'. And he still wants to be a goalkeeper!"

One man hoping to give Gomes a headache of a different kind is Sunderland striker Jermain Defoe.

 

And manager Sam Allardyce has dropped a heavy hint that the forward will not be sold in the New Year.

Relegation rivals Bournemouth would love to take the 33-year-old to the south coast and in recent weeks Allardyce has refused to rule out selling him to boost his transfer kitty.

But the manager said: "I'd expect him to be our top scorer this season. On the basis of history. His career path has proved that at other clubs."