Mikey Moore is having himself a heck of a season on loan at Rangers. The 18-year-old Tottenham Hotspur winger is flying at Ibrox, scoring six goals and tallying 2 assists in just over 1200 minutes for Rangers and finding himself something of a fan favorite amongst Rangers fans this season. Not too shabby for a 18-year-old kid that was playing U18 football two seasons ago, and if things continue to go the way they are it suggests Moore could be have a real spark off the bench for Tottenham next season,
no matter what division they are playing.
But things haven’t always come so easy. Last season Moore missed an extended period of time with a then-undiagnosed illness, described only as a “virus.” The assumption, Moore being the teenage kid that he is, was that Moore had picked up a long-term but ultimately relatively minor virus like mononucleosis; we at Carty Free Towers definitely made some jokes about Mikey spending more time snogging than playing football, and while we all were disappointed that last season was something of a wash for him it wasn’t seemingly something to be overly concerned about.
Today on SpursPLAY, the club dropped another episode of its Life on Loan series, this time focusing on Moore and his time at Rangers, and it was revealed that the virus that hit Mikey last season was actually quite serious, causing an inflammation in his heart (myocarditis) that led to him basically bedridden and unable to play football for six weeks. Moore was diagnosed with the (still unknown) virus in November.
“I was playing really well, starting to find my feet in the first team, then I think it was just before the Galatasaray game. I trained a couple of days before it, I think I was set to start or make an appearance in that game, then went for a driving lesson that night and all of a sudden I just felt a pain in my chest.
“The doctor called me and just said ‘forget about football for now’. It came back that I had myocarditis, which is a virus and it went to my heart, gave me the pain in my heart. I’m lucky I caught it early because I’m not sure what could have happened after that. I think I was in bed for six weeks. I wasn’t allowed any exercise.
“There was a lot of rumours at that time and it was tough to deal with. That six weeks was not six weeks of improving in the gym like with a usual injury.
“Right now, I feel at my best. I feel kind of what I felt like when I first started playing at Tottenham. That’s all done now. Put it behind me. That’s it, really.”
Whoa! That’s both serious and really scary. If anything, Mikey’s kind of soft-selling what happened to him — losing six weeks to any sort of injury is rough, but myocarditis is a serious condition that can cause heart palpitations, chest pain, flu-like symptoms, and sometimes even severe heart-related issues. Myocarditis is no joke — it’s the kind of diagnosis that could lead to serious complications. It wasn’t released what kind of virus Mikey had, but a quick google suggested viruses such as adenovirus (the common cold), COVID-19, parvovirus, and herpes simplex can all lead to myocarditis, as can measles, mononucleosis, and others. Ultimately it doesn’t matter what Moore was sick with — what matters is that he got treatment right away, and despite missing multiple weeks of football last season he recovered fully and is now kicking butt in Scotland.
It’s a reminder for all of us not to take things for granted, and that health conditions can come seemingly out of nowhere. I’m personally glad that Mikey has recovered fully, and that he felt comfortable enough discussing what happened to him.
