{"id":628364,"date":"2026-09-18T08:48:17","date_gmt":"2026-09-18T08:48:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/628364\/"},"modified":"2026-09-18T08:48:17","modified_gmt":"2026-09-18T08:48:17","slug":"fa-cup-from-depression-after-serious-injury-at-chelsea-to-still-playing-at-37","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/628364\/","title":{"rendered":"FA Cup: From depression after serious injury at Chelsea to still playing at 37"},"content":{"rendered":"

Monday, 26 May 2025. A date etched in the memories of AFC Wimbledon fans after their side won promotion to League One<\/a> by beating Walsall at Wembley in the play-off final.<\/p>\n

It was Hutchinson’s winner at Grimsby<\/a> three weeks earlier that ensured the Dons made the play-offs.<\/p>\n

He did not know it at the time but the defender-turned-midfielder would not start another game for 11 months after scoring at Blundell Park.<\/p>\n

“Throughout the first half my chest was getting increasingly tighter and I was in so much pain,” recalls Hutchinson about that game at Grimsby.<\/p>\n

“I felt dizzy and my hands started sweating.<\/p>\n

“I was rapidly going downhill but then our centre-back won a great header, the keeper tipped it on to the bar, and it dropped down to me to tap over the line.”<\/p>\n

While AFC Wimbledon’s travelling fans celebrated the goal wildly, Hutchinson felt so unwell his only thoughts were finishing the game and making it home to his wife and three children.<\/p>\n

It would be several days, however, before he returned to the family home in Ascot.<\/p>\n

On the journey back to London, his condition deteriorated to such an extent that a decision was taken to divert the team coach to a hospital in Nottingham so he could receive treatment.<\/p>\n

After tests Hutchinson was quickly transferred to a nearby cardiac unit.<\/p>\n

“I was put me in the back of an ambulance and I remember hearing the blues and twos,” he recalls.<\/p>\n

“My blood levels had spiked so much, I was in a really bad way. A couple of the paramedics knew who I was because I had played for Nottingham Forest a few years earlier.<\/p>\n

“They said: ‘You can thank us later for saving your life.’ I was told I’d had a heart attack.”<\/p>\n

Hutchinson spent the next five days in hospital and had successful heart surgery.<\/p>\n

“A branch of an artery was blocked 75%. I had an angiogram, external<\/a> and had a stent put in by a specialist. The one thing that the professor – who had looked after both Tom Lockyer<\/a> and Christian Eriksen<\/a> \u2013 said was my situation was nothing like theirs. <\/p>\n

“It was a blockage and it was all fixed, there was no need for a defibrillator to be fitted.” <\/p>\n

John Terry, his former Chelsea team-mate, was among those who reached out to Hutchinson during his recovery, while the player was well enough to visit Wembley to watch AFC Wimbledon win promotion. <\/p>\n

A month later the Dons announced he had signed a one-year contract extension after being given the all-clear to train again.<\/p>\n

However, Hutchinson was limited to just a handful of appearances in 2025-26 and in May – 12 months after that game at Grimsby – it was announced he would be leaving at the age of 36.<\/p>\n

“Sam played a pivotal role in getting us over the line, not only with that iconic goal at Grimsby but his performances leading up to that,” said an AFC Wimbledon statement, external<\/a> announcing his departue.<\/p>\n

Some may have decided it was the perfect time to retire from playing after what he had been through.<\/p>\n

Hutchinson, though, had other ideas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Monday, 26 May 2025. A date etched in the memories of AFC Wimbledon fans after their side won…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":628365,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-628364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628364","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=628364"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628364\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/628365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=628364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=628364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=628364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}