LUTON captain Tom Lockyer said he “literally died” after his heart stopped for two minutes and 40 seconds during his harrowing on-pitch cardiac arrest.

The 29-year-old Welshman, speaking at length for the first time since he collapsed in the 59th minute of the Hatters’ abandoned Premier League game against Bournemouth on December 16, admitted it was “out of his hands” if he would ever play again.

Lockyer was fitted with an implantable cardioverter defibrillator after he was hospitalised for five days.

Reliving the incident which rocked the football world, Lockyer, who also suffered a collapse during May’s Championship play-off victory against Coventry, told Sky Sports: “It was just a normal day, and that was the most worrying thing because I felt completely fine.

“I have been looking for answers since but I have not been able to find any because it was just another day at the office.

“I was running towards the halfway line and I went really light headed. I thought I’d be OK in a second but I wasn’t.

“I woke up and the paramedics were there. I knew instantly it was different to my collapse in May. Last time it felt like I woke up from a dream, and this time I woke up from nothingness.

“I could see there was more panic and I was a bit disorientated. I couldn’t speak, I couldn’t move. I was trying to work out what was happening, and I remember thinking, ‘I could be dying here.’

“Following what happened in May, I have a recording device in my chest, and I was out for two minutes and 40 (seconds).

“It was hardest on my family having to watch that. They had it worse than me. My old man was there (at the match) and my girlfriend was seven months pregnant at the time.”

Lockyer had an emotional reunion with his team-mates at the club’s training ground last month – his first visit to the Hatters’ Brache HQ since he collapsed.

The defender hopes he will be able to return to top-flight football, but said he will be subjected to further tests before he has an answer.