England legend Stuart Pearce, 62, suffers health scare on flight from Las Vegas as plane is forced to make emergency landing in Canada
England legend Stuart Pearce suffered a health scare on a flight from Las Vegas, which caused the plane to make an emergency landing in Canada.
The 62-year-old, who played 78 times for the Three Lions between 1987 and 1999, was hooked up to a monitor by crew and rushed to hospital upon landing.
The flight was on a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner plane and heading from Vegas to Heathrow and landed at St John’s in Canada early on Monday after staff made the decision to land prematurely.
Pearce and his partner had been in economy on the flight, which left the United States at 8:45pm on Sunday. He is now recovering in hospital, with the remaining 225 passengers later flown to Heathrow and arriving six hours later than they were due to – at 6:15pm on Monday.
He was in Vegas to watch Warrington Wolves – the rugby league team he supports – face Wigan Warriors before heading home.
It is thought the plane was at 30,000 feet when the incident happened, of which it is still unknown.
A source told The Sun that Pearce had appeared to become uncomfortable early in the flight and his condition deteriorated as it continued.
He was said to have been constantly shifting position in his seat, with crew and other patients, who were trained in first aid, attending to him.
TalkSport pundit Pearce had been due to speak at an event at the Christ The King Parish Centre in Coventry on Thursday, but was replaced by former England team-mate John Barnes ‘due to unforeseen circumstances’.
A Virgin Atlantic spokesperson said on Thursday: ‘Due to an unwell customer on board, the VS156 on March 2 flying from Las Vegas to London Heathrow diverted to St John’s International Airport, Canada, and was met by the medical services.
‘The safety and well-being of our customers and crew is always our number one priority and we apologise for the delay to our customers’ journey.’
Pearce has been a fan of Wolves since befriending former coach Tony Smith.
He has regularly attended games around his busy schedule of punditry work and various talks, including at events and universities.
He was last involved in football when part of David Moyes’ coaching staff at West Ham, before departing in 2022.
Pearce was famed for his hard work and hard-hitting tackles during his time with England, where he made the left back spot his own for the majority of his international career.
Nicknamed ‘Psycho’ due to the nature of which he played the game, the veteran was also briefly caretaker manager of England in 2012 – the same year he led the Great Britain men’s football team at their home Olympics.
He infamously missed a penalty in the 1990 World Cup semi-final shootout defeat by West Germany, but netted in the quarter-final penalties win over Spain six years later.
During his playing career, he featured for Wealdstone until 1983 when he made the move to Coventry.
Joining Nottingham Forest in 1985, he would go onto play more than 400 times for the club and win two League Cup titles.
The defender, who scored 87 career goals, would also feature for the likes of Newcastle, West Ham and Manchester City before retiring in 2002.
Pearce briefly coached at Nottingham Forest while there as a player between 1996 and 1997, but remained as a coach at Manchester City upon retirement and became the club’s manager in 2005.
There, he lasted two years before being sacked at the end of the 2006-7 season after his side failed to score at home in the league after the turn of the year.
He had already been appointed manager of England’s Under-21s on a part-time before his dismissal at City, and continued the role after he left club football. He became full-time boss in July 2007.
In 2008, Fabio Capello added Pearce to his staff with the senior team and Pearce led the team for one game in 2012 as caretaker following Capello’s resignation – a 3-2 friendly defeat by the Netherlands.
He would return to U21 duty and lead England to the final of the 2009 Under-21 European Championship, where they lost 4-0 against Germany. He departed in 2013 after his contract wasn’t extended.
He returned to Nottingham Forest in 2014 as manager, but lasted less than a year – sacked in February 2015.
The veteran also worked at Portsmouth, before becoming Moyes’ assistant at West Ham in November 2017. He left the club at the end of the 2017-18 season with Moyes, and returned again in August 2020 for two years.
It is understood that Pearce was extremely thankful to staff and passengers for their understanding and early landing as concern from his partner and other members of the public grew during the flight.
