I THOUGHT I WAS DYING - IRELAND

STEPHEN IRELAND has revealed he thought he was about to die the night he staggered off the pitch and was rushed to hospital.

The Manchester City midfielder suffered a terrifying dizzy spell during the Carling Cup tie against Fulham six weeks ago.

And he has now admitted: “At the time, I thought that was the end of me.

“It was a bit of a strange scare for me. But even now I don’t know what it was.

“I’ve had every test there is and they still don’t know what the problem was.”

Ireland, 23, came off the Eastlands pitch on September 23 complaining of dizziness and feeling unwell.

Dropped

He was taken to hospital but released when tests failed to reveal anything.

Ireland, who then picked up an unrelated stomach bug, hopes to start his first match since the scare when Burnley visit on Saturday.

“It took me a while to get right, but I’m back on track,” said Ireland. “Everything is looking positive.”

Ireland was a sub at Birmingham on Sunday, City’s fourth successive Premier League draw.

Keeper and penalty-save hero Shay Given has urged his team-mates to start winning again, or risk wondering what might have been.

Given said: “At the end of the season we don’t want to be looking back saying: ‘If we had only got two more points, we would have been wherever.’

“We have played three of the last four away from home and got draws.

“People say you will do okay if you draw your away games and win all of your home games.

“But we drew at home to Fulham and we are disappointed we haven’t turned a couple of those draws into wins.

“One or two of the big teams have dropped points and lost a lot more than us.

“We have only lost once this season but we do need to turn one or two more of these draws into victories.”

Given took one positive from the goalless stalemate at St Andrew’s. It was City’s first clean sheet since the 1-0 win at Portsmouth in August and he added: “It’s important, not just for myself and the defenders, but for the team as a unit.

“It had been eight games since we kept a clean sheet and it was nice to get back to that.”

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