'He's back smiling and he's a good kid': How Doncaster Rovers showed compassionate side with career lifeline for Josh Emmanuel

Emmanuel was a Championship defender then, and McCann says he would still be now were it not for the blood clot which caused him to collapse in training at Cottingham, and miss more than a year of football.

More than three years on, Emmanuel is working to secure a new club after spells at Grimsby Town, Carlisle United and most recently Doncaster, where his short-term contract expired in January to allow him to make a permanent move closer to home.

McCann has said very little about the November 2021 incident which clearly affected him, but has now spoken to The Yorkshire Post about it, and the important part current Rotherham United forward Mallik Wilks' quick thinking played in it.

"If Josh didn't have the accident at Hull that day - I'll never forget it - he would still be playing in the Championship, for sure," said McCann. "He collapsed at the training ground with a heart problem. That's maybe put off clubs.

"He missed the best part of a year with that at Hull. That's not easy to overcome but there's no doubt if it hadn't happened to him, he'd have flown on.

"It was a weird one, we were doing a passing drill in training and I'm looking at Cliff (Byrne, his assistant, then as now) and he's looking at me and I'm thinking, 'Is Josh Emmanuel all right because he can't control the ball?'

"I actually had a pop at him and said, 'Josh, can you concentrate? Can you control the ball and pass it from A to B?'

"Next minute you're thinking 'Wow!'

"If it hadn't been for Mallik Wilks, who grabbed him before he fell, it could have been a lot worse. It was credit to the medical team at Hull and all the doctors who looked after him and got him back. It was a long process and they had to be very careful with it.

"He'll probably have to take the medication for the rest of his life but it's good to see him back smiling because he's such a good kid."

McCann feels a duty of care to his former players, and in August gave the now-27-year-old right-back a League Two platform, on the understanding if Emmanuel thought he could get a more suitable contract, Doncaster would not hold him back.

Only by releasing him before the transfer window closed on February 3 could he join another club as a free agent in the second half of this season. Emmanuel made eight Rovers appearances, including six starts, but was competing with Jamie Sterry, one of their best players.

Although not yet fixed up for the rest of 2024-25, McCann hopes he will find a club better suited to his circumstances.

"Josh has a young family, he lives down London way so he wasn't seeing his family," he explained. "I gave him a few days off here and there to go and see his newborn. It's important for him to find a new club where he can settle, hopefully closer to home so he doesn't miss out on his children growing up."