Mark O'Brien: Heart condition forces Newport County defender to retire

Defender Mark O'Brien played 127 times for Newport

Newport County's Mark O'Brien has been forced to retire at the age of 27 because he needs heart surgery.

Newport have now seen two defenders forced to retire due to a heart issue in just over a year, after Fraser Franks was forced to retire aged 28.

O'Brien underwent open heart surgery when he was 16 and says he knew his career could end at anytime.

"I need the operation and there is no way I can delay it," he explained. "Each year could have been my last."

O'Brien is the scorer of one of Newport's most famous goals.

His 89th-minute winner kept Newport up in miraculous fashion in 2017.

Newport say they "will be doing everything they can" to support O'Brien, who was club captain at the start of the 2019-20 season and played 127 times for the Exiles.

O'Brien, who could have heart surgery as soon as next week, says his career was always on borrowed time due to the surgery he had as a teenager, where he opted to have a pigskin valve inserted, rather than a mechanical one, in order to pursue his dream of playing football as a career.

"Ever since my operation it was always doctors telling me I might not play football professionally," he told BBC Sport Wales.

"Doctors were more cautious with me telling me they did not know if I was going to be able to make a career but they never told me 'no'.

"They basically left me to my own devices and told me you can give it as good as you've got and if you make it professionally brilliant and if not it was something that was expected.

"So year after year I always had to keep going back to the hospital and I just kept getting scans... and hope for another year of football. I only ever played football year to year because I never knew when the valve had gone faulty again.

"I have had time to think about it and I have been lucky in some aspects, in that I have got 10 years out of it. I have had some doctors shocked I was getting five years out of it... so yes I am gutted and didn't expect it to happen (now), but there was always going to be a time when it would happen."

After starting his career at Derby County, O'Brien played for Luton Town before joining County. He also made loan appearances at Motherwell and Southport.

O'Brien was sent off in the League Two play-off final last season and helped Newport in their FA Cup runs of 2018 and 2019.

He says he will retire with no regrets, adding: "I have made 10 years of it I can always look back on it and say I gave it a fair crack. I am happy with what I have done.

"It's just got to the stage where I have pushed this valve as far as it can go and it is what it is.

"There is nothing I could have done to have slowed it down, or lived any differently. It was out of my hands.

"That is why I can accept it. I was only able to do what my health allowed me. It has got me this far and I am proud of my career."