Aaron Ramsdale revealed he was coming to terms with his wife’s miscarriage as the Arsenal goalkeeper was assaulted after a north London derby at Tottenham last season.
The Arsenal shot-stopper kept a clean sheet as Arsenal beat Spurs on January 15 to keep their Premier League title ambitions alive.
As Ramsdale collected his water bottle after the final whistle, Spurs fan Joseph Watts jumped onto the advertising hoarding and aimed a boot at Ramsdale's back. Watts was given a four-year banning order having been charged with assault and throwing a missile on the field.
Speaking after the game, Ramsdale told Sky Sports: "It's a shame because it's just a game of football at the end of the day. I think both sets of players tried to bring me away. Thankfully nothing actually happened too drastic. It's a sour taste."
The England international revealed he was already dealing with a family tragedy life before the incident at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
"There are things that go on in our lives that the public has no idea about, and the past year has been an emotional rollercoaster for me and my family," he wrote for The Players' Tribune.
"After the high of climbing to the top of the Premier League table and going off to my first World Cup, my wife and I found out that we were expecting our first child.
"Mikel (Arteta) gave me a few extra days off after the World Cup, so we went on a brief holiday. It was genuinely the happiest time of our lives. And yeah … there's no easy way to say this, but I feel like it's important that people know.
"On the flight home, my wife had a miscarriage.
"There's really no way that I can describe the pain of that six-hour flight back to London, even now. I just want people out there to know that they're not alone if they're going through it themselves."
Arteta offered Ramsdale additional time off – "in the middle of the title race, with so much pressure on the club… for me, that's a manager" – but he opted to play on.
"Three days later, we were playing Spurs in the derby, and for me that was the only way to get my mind off things. Football has always been my escape. I told the manager I wanted to play," he added.
"It couldn't have been a better night. We won 2–0 under the floodlights, and our away fans were going absolutely ballistic. If you watch the match back, you can see me beaming at the final kick of the ball. I went to get my water bottle behind the goal, and never in a million years would I ever think that I'd get kicked in the back by a Tottenham fan.
"I've had some very spicy banter with fans all over the English leagues. I've been called everything you can imagine. But it's never crossed the line like that. I remember when I got back to the dressing room, I couldn't even celebrate because I got pulled out to give a police statement."
"You know, I almost felt bad for the bloke who had done it, because I thought to myself: If he only knew me as a person, and what I'm actually going through right now, there's no way that he would've done that. If we bumped into each other one day and got chatting about football, we'd probably be mates."
