Ex-Burnley midfielder Gareth Farrelly has opened up about the health scare that could have cost his life and an extreme career change after leaving football.

Farrelly made 14 appearances for the Clarets during a loan spell from Bolton in 2003.

The midfielder also had spells with Everton, Rotherham and Wigan among others during his playing days.

But it was while playing for Cork in 2008 that he was rushed to hospital with an aneurysm of the splenic artery.

Farrelly would need major surgery, spending four days in intensive care. The condition has a 10 per cent survival rate but thankfully he pulled through.

“It’s eight-and-half-years ago and I still think all the time that I am part of the 10 per cent that live,” he told The Sun.

“I don’t get up, open the curtains and smell the roses every day or anything like that but when you’re having a bad day it is nice to reflect on it.

“My kids were incredibly young and you don’t want to think about what could have happened.

“I met amazing people from the moment I phoned an ambulance to when I left the hospital to do my rehabilitation. I’m only here because of them.”

Farrelly was able to return to football after the health scare and considered heading into management, having experience as a player-manager from his time at Irish club Bohemians.

But the 47-year-old decided to pursue an extreme career change and is currently working is a lawyer. He studied at Edge Hill University during the final stages of his playing career.

He continued: “It was a horrendous, difficult recovery. I sat there thinking, ‘What if I can never play football again?’

“Any player will tell you that they are incredibly resilient in the face of adversity but I had to think about what I was going to do in life if I couldn’t play again.

“I had the management experience at the time but that’s now become even more competitive than before, so I thought about my interest in law.”