The Liverpool winger’s father is being held hostage in Colombia, and talks to free him are ongoing while his son continues to play.
Chris Sutton praised Luis Diaz’s character after the Liverpool forward played and scored despite the fact that his father was kidnapped in Colombia.
Negotiations to free the wide man’s father are ongoing after he and Diaz’s mother were kidnapped by the guerilla insurgency group ELN. Mum was rescued hours later, but Luis Emanuel remains imprisoned. While an emotional Diaz revealed a message of support for his father after a late equalizer away to Luton, Sutton acknowledged how difficult the situation must be and how Diaz will benefit from getting out on the pitch.
The only Celtic game he missed was due to a family emergency, according to the Record Sport columnist. While’sutton was on Euro duty with the Hoops in Valencia, his son James was rushed to the hospital after choking. His reassurances to his wife were ignored, which was fortunate because Sutton Jnr was quickly treated by doctors and placed on life support for several days before pulling through and making a full recovery.
“I think it’s a massive character strength as much as anything else.” ‘He might see going out and training and playing as escapism to try and take his mind off things,’ Sutton explained on the It’s All Kicking Off podcast.
“From my own experience, I believe I only missed a game once, and that was when my premature son James… we nearly lost him.”
“I’d actually flown out to Valencia to play in a UEFA Cup game for Celtic.” He was only 28 weeks old and a tiny baby.
“We had him for eight weeks in the hospital so that his organs could grow and he could breathe properly.” Anyway, he came out, and our family returned to normalcy.
“A few weeks later, I’d flown out to Valencia to play, and my wife was dropping off the kids at school, and little James was choking in the car.” My wife called, and we got into an argument over the phone.
“I was telling myself, ‘Oh, take him home, he’ll be fine.'” And she didn’t, because her instinct was to take him to the hospital, which was a good thing! When we arrived at the hospital, he stopped breathing, and the doctor actually took him away and told my wife that he’d died and they’d brought him back.
“This was the day before the game… I didn’t participate! But it was most likely the only time I couldn’t think. It’s not the same as Diaz, but in terms of [your] head being everywhere and not thinking about football.
“James was then placed on life support for a few days before being transferred to a special unit.” When he started to improve, I found football to be a great distraction.”
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