Rochdale's Jim McNulty unfazed facing Harry Kane and Tottenham in FA Cup after having kidney removed
The 33-year-old was initially told his career was over after rupturing his right kidney
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Your support makes all the difference.Rochdale midfielder Jim McNulty insists he won’t be fazed by the prospect of facing Tottenham’s Harry Kane and company – after having a kidney removed.
The 33-year-old was initially told his career was over after rupturing his right kidney playing for Brighton and Hove Albion in February 2009. But after spending eight months out of the game, he made a successful recovery.
“I remember being in A&E within an hour or so of the actual incident,” said the Liverpool-born player. “The doctor said I probably wouldn’t play football again, which still winds me up because he had no knowledge to make that sort of call.
“I remember crying into my dad’s chest. Luckily that news was completely reversed within an hour. I wanted to strangle that doctor for making such a call. It was probably a bit of everyday information for him but football was my life. I’m completely over that now.
“It took a long time to recover and there was a lot knock-on injuries because my posture was greatly affected by having this empty space on my right side, and I had multiple ankle injuries because my pelvic alignment was a nightmare.
“They couldn’t transplant so I had a few operations trying to save it but ultimately it was taken out. The whole process took about a year, but 200-300 games later and facing Harry Kane and I’m fine.”
Tottenham head coach Mauricio Pochettino claimed the poor state of Rochdale’s pitch could threaten the safety of his players. The surface has been relaid since their fourth-round replay win over Millwall to boost the survival hopes of Dale, who like to pass the ball.
“I thought ‘does Pochettino think we want to eat his players or try to nick a result against them?’” said McNulty. “Yes, we’ve re-laid the pitch. It’s made for a popular debate, even in our own changing room.
“We’ve considered what would Tottenham least like to play on? A windy, horrible day on the beach as it has been? It wouldn’t appeal to them too much. I heard their manager talking about the safety of his players.
“But we’re a football-playing side and without question the pitch has been detrimental to our season.”
McNulty still believes coming to Rochdale’s tight, compact Spotland ground – now officially called the Crown Oil Arena – will be a culture shock to many Spurs players.
“We had a laugh about that – sandwiched between a north London derby at Wembley and a Champions League trip to Turin they visit the Crown Oil Arena!” smiled the Scouser, who has come through football the hard way after being rejected by Everton at 16 then spells with Caenarfon in the Welsh Premier League and National League with Wrexham.
“And I thought it might be on our 50-50 beach-swamp pitch we were playing on up until this point. But now we’ve laid a new surface which will make it slightly more pleasant for our opponents.
“It will still be a culture shock for them. Maybe not Dele Alli, if he plays, (because he was with MK Dons) or Harry Kane, who’s had experience of the lower leagues on loan at Leyton Orient. But I’m sure Fernando Llorente and some other overseas players haven’t been to a place like the Crown Oil!”
There is a 63-place gap between the teams, while the gulf in resources and size of the clubs is even bigger. But McNulty is only thinking of getting into the hat for the quarter-final draw, which would be the furthest Rochdale have been in the competition, rather than a replay at Wembley.
“If you offer me the chance to be 1-0 up with seven minutes left it would be like a dagger through the heart if they equalised,” he said.
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