Source: Daily_Mail
Iain Hume: Scar pictures are a reminder of how my family kept me alive
Iain Hume searches thoughtfully for an honest answer, rubbing a hand across the top of his head where an 18-inch scar curves around his skull in a horseshoe shape. It begins next to his left ear, carved deep into his scalp above three titanium clips and his temporal lobe. The point of impact.
So will he shake Chris Morgan's hand when the two men come face to face next month?
'I really, really don't know,' says Hume as he wrestles with his emotions for a few moments.
'It's one of those, isn't it. The professional thing would be to say yes. I probably would… but it'd be the quickest handshake in the world.'
Iain Hume
Iain Hume
By a twist of fate, the 25-year-old Barnsley striker will spend the anniversary of the game that so nearly cost him his life preparing to face Sheffield United again.
November 8, 2008. Oakwell. The South Yorkshire derby. Hume will never forget that, even though much of what happened next remains a blank.
Sky's decision to move this season's corresponding fixture back two days to Monday, November 9, for live television coverage reflects how a parochial affair has grabbed the nation's interest.
Hume is unable to discuss Morgan, the Sheffield United captain, any further because the case is heading for the civil courts.
But there is no dispute over the fact that Hume was caught by Morgan's elbow as the two men competed for a high ball. The Barnsley player was left with a fractured skull and the shattered bone fragments caused bleeding on his brain with almost catastrophic consequences.
It was a far more serious fracture than that suffered by Petr Cech three years ago, although Hume was touched by the Chelsea goalkeeper's offer of advice if he found himself struggling to overcome the psychological effects of his injury.
'Even though I'm a league below and a world away from him in football terms, for someone of his stature to offer their hand was massive for me,' said Hume.
'I didn't take him up on it. I just needed to do it my way and make my own steps, just as he had to.'
Hume
Hume
Scarred for life: Hume has kept these haunting images on his phone as a reminder of his biggest battle
Hume
He is speaking beneath a framed Steven Gerrard shirt which the Liverpool captain has signed with his best wishes. It is mounted on the wall of the games room in his house near Oldham, opposite an autographed Wayne Gretzky jersey from the ice hockey star. Hume, born in Edinburgh to Scottish parents but raised in Canada, is a huge admirer of both men.
When his wife Christine gave him the Gerrard shirt last Christmas, he had to hold back the tears.
'I'd like to think he knew who I was and what it was for,' said Hume. 'But if he didn't, I'm still grateful because I've got his signed shirt with my name on it and that means everything.'
Christine does not approve of the photos of the injury he kept on his mobile phone, however. He took the first one himself a few days after the operation by holding the phone over his head.
'I've got it step by step,' he said. 'One with the staples in, one with the staples out, and once it healed. They show me what I've been through.
'When I finally did get the bandage off it wasn't a pretty sight but I was alive. It was an emotional moment to see how much I'd changed. Even though I was swollen, I looked so drained after three or four days without eating a lot of food.
'I didn't realise how bad the scar was but it's something I've come to respect. Something that shows how far I've come since that day.
Hume
Flashpoint: Hume clashes with Chris Morgan (above) and is given treatment (below).
Hume
'It's my mini shark bite. I'm not going to pay money to get plastic surgery to get rid of it. There's no point. It's part of my life, the road I've taken.
'A lot of people involved with football are going to know what happened to me, especially when they see a picture. I hope it's not the only thing they remember me for.'
Hume also admits he kept footage of the incident on Sky+ for almost seven months, having insisted on seeing it for himself just hours after getting out of hospital.
'My wife hated the sight of it,' he said. 'She wanted to delete it right away but she knew I'd want to see it.
'I realised I had to. I wanted to know what had happened. I ended up watching it about a hundred times over the first few weeks. But as soon as I started getting better and the scar healed I switched myself off from it. I knew exactly what had gone on, step by step, and it was time to get rid. It didn't need to be there.'
Christine has noticed the changes in Iain. A slowness in his speech. Little things like when he began saying 'hotel' instead of 'hospital'.
'Don't ask me why,' said Hume. 'I know a hospital is a hospital. But I'd say hospital a hundred times and then come out with hotel.
'I know I'm not as sharp and quick with my speech as I was before. I was quite bright with what I was saying. I'd remember so many more words. My grammar was a lot better.
'They told me it could take years before I'm completely mended on the inside but that's something I've come to accept.
'Christine has noticed it. Nothing major. Just little things in conversation where I forget a word or what I'm doing. I'd say 98 per cent of me is back to normal but there's that little bit that needs to recover. I know it will.'
Enlarge Videograb from Sky News showing the injury to Barnsley footballer Iain Hume
Enlarge Videograb from Sky News showing the injury to Barnsley footballer Iain Hume
Video nasty: Videograb from Sky TVshowing the injury sustained by Hume
His wife certainly noticed something was wrong when she returned home to find Iain in bed last November even though it was early on a Saturday evening, his suit left in a crumpled mess on the bedroom floor.
She had missed the game to take the couple's five-year-old daughter Keira to a children's party, and it was her father Don who drove Hume back from Oakwell.
The Canada forward claims he had asked referee Andy D'Urso for more protection from flailing elbows in the minutes before he was injured. Unable to continue, Hume left the pitch with a ringing in his ear but was diagnosed with concussion and tried to watch the second half from the bench.
With both teams down to 10 men after D'Urso had sent off two players in a volatile derby game, and Sheffield United leading through two goals from James Beattie, Hume jumped up when Kayode Odejayi pulled one back and immediately wished he hadn't.
'The blood pressure rose and everything sort of exploded again,' he recalled. 'My head started ringing and I told them to get me inside. The doctor came in and sent me home with some tablets.'
By the time he woke up at lunchtime the next day, Hume admits he was talking gibberish.
'My father-in-law came in to ask how I was and I said, "I'm fine but more importantly when are we going to go out and play 15 holes of golf?" Fifteen holes? I play golf regularly, and that just makes no sense.
'I just wasn't being me. I hid my phone from Christine when I was lying in bed. Supposedly it was underneath my body. She asked for it to phone the physio and I told her she didn't need it. I don't know whether subconsciously I knew something was up, and I put it underneath me for a reason. Maybe I didn't want anyone else involved.
'I can imagine how hard it was for her. If there's anything more out of character than that she hasn't told me.'
Hume
Welcome return: Hume (far right) gets back to scoring ways against Ipswich recently
The family decided to have Hume checked out at the local hospital where he began vomiting in A&E. Doctors ordered the CT scan that revealed his life threatening condition and he was rushed to Salford Royal for an emergency brain operation followed by a night in the hospital's high dependency unit.
'Next thing I know I wake up in hospital on the Monday with this big plaster over my head with a drain in the back of my skull to take away the excess blood.
From being in bed on the Sunday afternoon to being in hospital is a blank. Until I woke up in there I didn't realise anything was wrong. I honestly thought it was a concussion. You obviously don't expect the worst and on this occasion I don't think it could have been any worse than what it was.
Enlarge Hume's scar is covered in bandage
Hospital stay: Hume's scar is covered in bandages
'If it wasn't for my family, who knows where I'd be now? They've kept me alive.'
Hume had known difficult times in his career. Like when he came over from Canada as a youngster with his parents for trials with St Mirren and his boyhood club Hearts, but heard nothing. Or when he struggled to win a starting place in his first season at Leicester after joining from Tranmere for £500,000.
But nothing like this. As they made a desperate dash from Brampton, Ontario, his parents Eddie and Wilma must have feared the worst. It is not something Hume likes to dwell on.
'The fact I could have died wasn't something my family or myself … well, I don't know. Some people might have thought about but it didn't go through my head.
'Christine has been so strong. From day one, she's never shed a tear in front of me even though she shows she's been upset.
'Between her and my daughter, they are the main reason I got so healthy so quickly because they were always there helping me. If I tried to do anything outside of my comfort zone they smacked me down to earth.
'When my daughter came in she got the hang of what was going on. I don't know if she knew the severity of it all but she understood that daddy's head was sore.'
Simon Davey - his manager at the time - accused D'Urso of endangering the player's life, and Barnsley were not alone in criticising the FA for not punishing Morgan further.
A group of 15 MPs even protested after the FA decided there was not enough proof that Morgan's actions were deliberate to justify them intervening, as they have in several high-profile cases where a player had already received a yellow card.
'It's just very hypocritical,' said Hume. 'The FA go against their own word so many times.
'Within the same week Didier Drogba was booked for throwing a coin back into the crowd and that was put in the match report yet he was given a three-match ban.
'And then the whole Adebayor thing has just gone on. He was booked for the celebration and then given an extra suspended ban and fine. There you go again.
'It needs to be realised that you don't have to be in the Champions League or the top of the Premier League to have cases like this looked at properly. It should start from the bottom up, and I don't think it does at the moment.'
What upsets Hume more than anything is that he was unable to help Barnsley's battle to beat relegation last season after they had paid a club record £1.2million to sign him from Leicester.
He even offered to duck any insurance issues to come back and play for them on the final day of the season at Plymouth, having returned to training in March following a series of scans and checks.
Hume
Looking forward: Hume can now concentrate on rebuilding his career and enjoying the future with his young family
He decided to switch off from football completely in the summer, spending time with his family at their lakeside cottage near Toronto and on holiday in Tenerife before returning for pre-season. Even then he was stopped from playing in friendlies while the solicitors removed the final obstacles to his return.
The biggest one of all - heading a ball for the first time - had been cleared in a heartbeat.
'One of the lads went to flick the ball over me,' said Hume. 'It was only just a little loop over my head, but I jumped and headed it. I didn't even think about it. That was the first big step in my recovery. It was just a little tap with the ball, but it made me realise I wasn't afraid of coming back.
'If you asked any of the defenders I've played against since I've been back I haven't shied out of anything. I still chuck my head in here, there and everywhere.
Enlarge Canada striker Hume at his family home
Seen the light: Canada striker Hume at his home
'I know I'm going to have to reel it in a little bit because I used to be quite reckless. But I'm trying to continue as much as normal.
'I took a knock right above my scar in the last game. But a little knock here or there isn't severe in my mind. I know a little headache isn't going to hurt me anymore.
'I just want to be Iain Hume, the striker the club spent more than a million on, not the injured lad who's been out for so long with a skull fracture.'
By the time Hume played against Coventry on August 15 he had not been in a competitive game for nine months. But with two goals in his last two outings against West Bromwich and Ipswich, it feels as though he has made the final step on the road to recovery.
'I've tried to go back to the same person I was before the injury but obviously with a few little differences with my head and things that are going on,' he said.
'I very seldom touch alcohol now. I've just realised what I've got and I can't afford to risk anything because I've been knocked back for so long and if that were to happen to me again it would finish me off.
'Fans have been unbelievable. Not only from the clubs I've been at, but so many others. They need to know I haven't done it alone. I've done it through family and friends and people I don't even know.'
Christine is due to give birth to the couple's second child in April and Hume admits the ordeal has taught him to strike a better balance between his family and career.
'I realised that football isn't life,' he said. 'It's a massive part of who I've been for the past 25 years but it isn't the be all and end all.
'If I did stop playing I've got a family that loves me and will be with me forever. I've learned a lot about what I mean to them and they mean to me.
'I'm getting back to the Iain I was before the injury. It's been a long year and I've gone through more in that year than I'd have wanted. But thankfully the negative thoughts in my head are coming to an end.'
