Aberdeen legend Joe Harper has opened up on his Covid-19 nightmare where he spent seven days in hospital battling the virus.
The 73-year-old Pittodrie great was taken to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary by ambulance on Saturday, October 2 after contracting the virus.
It began with a cough, but within days Joe, who is double vaccinated, was hospitalised and placed on oxygen 24 hours a day.
Isolated in a room on his own with no visitors allowed, Joe admits he feared he would never see his family again.
Thankfully, Aberdeen’s greatest ever goalscorer, known as ‘The King’, is now back in his Pitmedden home and on the road to recovery.
Joe said: “It started with a cough. It didn’t seem that bad at first, but it became increasingly worse.
“My partner Sheila phoned the doctor’s surgery and a nurse came out to listen to my cough.
“Later that day an ambulance came to the house. They did a few tests then took me to hospital.
“I must admit it was pretty scary as it all happened so quickly.
“They gave me an oxygen mask to stick over my face and told me to keep it there.
“I had to keep it on all day unless I was eating.
“I was in a room in the hospital on my own for seven days.
“One minute you are okay, the next you can get quite depressed.
“It does play on your mind – What is this? What’s the next step? What’s going to happen?
“The more you are by yourself, the more you start to think about things, about how bad it is.
“It’s amazing all the things you think about when you are alone – like death, whether I will ever see my family again.
“Things like that – if only for a second.
“You know there are so many people dying with Covid that you can’t help but think about it.”
‘It was preying on my mind, what’s going to happen?’
One of Aberdeen’s greatest players, Joe is the club’s all-time record scorer with 205 goals.
During two spells at Pittodrie, Joe won every domestic honour, claiming the Scottish Cup (1970), League Cup (1976) and the Premier League (1980).
In October 2019, Joe, who was capped for Scotland and also played for Everton, Hibs and Morton, was inducted into the Scottish Football Hall of Fame.
Joe still has connections with Aberdeen FC as a match-day host and is also a columnist with the Evening Express.
His charity golf days have raised more than £100,000 for local causes.
He said: “For those days in hospital I was up and down.
“I couldn’t have any visitors, I could just phone people, but that’s not the same.
“Even trying to get to sleep at night you’re lying there and can hear other people coughing in other wards and I had that oxygen mask on all time.
“I don’t get scared easily, but it was preying on my mind – what’s going to happen?
“That many things go through you mind about your family – will I see my kids again?
“I was lying in bed all day and all night thinking.
“Doctors would come round and do tests and say it’s going okay.
“But I was still coughing, so I was thinking: ‘it’s not okay’.
“After about the third day, I was able to eat, which helped.
“Every day I woke up I hoped the cough had gone away, but it hadn’t.
“Finally it stopped being so bad and eventually one day I woke up and it was almost gone. I felt a lot more positive then.”
Praise for the NHS staff
There have been 9.4 million confirmed cases of coronavirus in the UK and more than 142,000 people have died within 28 days of testing positive, government figures show.
So far, almost 88% of people aged 12 and over in the UK have had their first vaccine dose, while about 80% have had their second.
Almost 20% have received a booster dose.
Joe said: “The NHS do an absolutely brilliant job, I can’t praise them enough.
“They would wake me up at 2am, 4am, 6am and 8am to do tests.
“They were there the whole night and day looking after me.
“The NHS staff were wonderful.”
Back home but still very weak
Now recuperating at home in Pitmedden, Joe is battling back to health, but admits he is still ‘very weak’.
He said: “Covid has gone for all my weak bits.
“My cruciate ligament from when I was a footballer – my right knee is like a balloon now.
“It seems to be the Covid goes for these things like my knees, ankles, elbows.
“I came through it, but I’m still pretty weak. ”
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