Sheffield Wednesday boss Moore was "fighting for life" during Covid battle

Sheffield Wednesday manager Darren Moore has opened up on his traumatic experience of contracting Covid-19.

Moore caught Covid in April and after a period of self-isolation, he quickly returned to work in his battle to keep the Owls in the Championship.

But his health suddenly deteriorated and not long after he was taken to hospital as his condition worsened.

Now, in a revealing interview, he has spoken of his experience of fighting the respiratory disease.

"I was fighting for my life," Moore told the Times. "When I caught Covid, I never felt too great in the two weeks I was isolating.

Darren Moore spent time in hospital towards the end of last season as his side fell agonisingly short of Championship survival

"When I came back out, I just went all out with energies and driving the team for two days for the game against Swansea.

"It sent me to a difficult place in just a few hours. I had all these pains in my chest. I still thought, 'I'm all right' but my blood was starting to clot.

"It attacked my respiratory system, I had pneumonia and then pleurisy. I was struggling.

"I was in there (hospital) a full week, full 24 hours' oxygen. I've not talked about this and I'll be honest with you, I was scared. I went through a four-hour period in the emergency room with three cardiac nurses around me."

Moore admits that during his week-long stay there was a 48-hour period when it was considered touch-and-go.

He accepts there was a very real possibility he could have died: "I look back and think, my goodness, it was that level.

"I'm really grateful to the nurses and doctors. My family were great but they couldn't come in.

"For those 48 hours it must have been bedlam for them. I've got a little girl, 11, and she'd have been petrified. My mum was in bits. I got a message to them that I was all right."

Moore was able to return to the dugout for Wednesday's final game of the season - the epic showdown against Derby County in what was effectively a relegation play-off.

The Owls had to win to stay in the division but a topsy-turvy 3-3 draw ensured it was Derby, and not Moore's men, who avoided the drop.

Now hoping to mount an immediate promotion out of League One, Moore today takes his side to Cheltenham Town as Wednesday aim to end a frustrating run of three consecutive stalemates.