Essex boy, 8, playing football with defibrillator fitted

Harry, 8, says he was "bored" for the weeks he was unable to play football while recovering from surgery

A football-mad boy who worried he would never play again has returned to the game he loves with a special vest to protect a defibrillator in his chest.

Harry, eight, from Weeley, Essex had an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) fitted in his chest in January due to a congenital heart condition.

His father, Jay, who also has an ICD, said coaches in Harry's under-nine league fundraised for the vest.

Harry said he would have been "devastated" not to play again.

The device is similar to the one Luton Town defender Tom Lockyer had fitted following his collapse on the pitch after a cardiac arrest during a Premier League match in December.

It continuously checks the heartbeat and delivers electric shocks, when needed, to restore a regular heart rhythm.

Harry said: "If I'm playing I can't really feel it [the ICD ] because I just keep playing and it just doesn't feel like it's there."

"It felt good" to be out on the pitch again after the the six weeks of "boring" recovery, he added.

Jay, who coaches his son's team, said although Harry was currently asymptomatic, doctors felt the device would be a "safety net" as risks would increase as he grew.

"The doctors explained it to us as like having a trampoline with a safety net around it. You don't expect to need it, but it's there just in case," he said.

"Football means everything to him."

Harry says he would have been "devastated" if he had not been able to paly football after his surgery

Harry's device was fitted on 2 January and he was back playing football last week, thanks to the protective vest.

His dad said it would not have happened without the support of the local grassroots football community.

"It's great the grassroots community came together to help him."

Jay said the vest was like "a T-shirt with a shin pad in it" protecting Harry's ICD if he were to fall, be hit, or if someone grabbed at his shirt where the device was fitted.

He has the same condition as his son - obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

"Harry was playing football before doctors said he was safe to play and it was always in the back of my mind," he said.

"Every time he came off I felt so relieved he got through without something happening."

Jay, who has received life-saving shocks from his own ICD, said: "Harry having the device is a massive weight off my shoulders."

He added that footballers with ICDs like Lockyer, Manchester United's Christian Eriksen and ex-Bolton Wanderers player Fabrice Muamba were people his son now looked up to.