If things didn't get better, if the infection began attacking muscles or got into blood or bones, the op could have looked totally different

McGowan opens his heart on health scare hell

- ALAN ROBERTSON

say, 'I've got a bit of a sore calf'. All day Thursday I'd been taking paracetamol and Ibuprofen and it wasn't even taking the edge off.

"Six, seven o'clock it was almost like a movie watching my ankle get bigger and bigger, the pain was starting to get more intense.

"Even when I went into hospital, I was checked over by a nurse and put into the waiting room. I was probably there for a couple of hours and had to say, 'I think this is getting bigger'.

"For her to say, 'Yeah, we might just take you right now because in that two hours I've noticed a significant difference' was [an indication of] just how intense.

"In the space of six, seven hours I went from feeling not too bad and being able to half walk on it to not being able to walk at all.

"I would say Thursday lunchtime my leg was fine, a bit sore. By Saturday it was maybe three times the size and bright red."

A nasty infection had taken hold, docs couldn't get his temperature down from around 42 - high is usually considered to be 38C or above - while his CRP blood test reading was 342.