Heart scare ‘won’t force Redknapp to quit football’

Redknapp joined the long list of football managers to have had heart problems and yesterday underwent a procedure to unblock two coronary arteries.

Redknapp was admitted to hospital on Tuesday night to have tests, and it was decided that the 64-year-old would have the procedure – carried out under local anaesthetic – yesterday morning. He is expected to be released from hospital in the next 48 hours and is said to be in “excellent spirits”, even claiming he could be back at work tomorrow morning ahead of Sunday’s game at Fulham.

Fellow managers Sir Alex Ferguson, Gerard Houllier and Sam Allardyce have undergone heart operations recently and Redknapp has been taking heart pills on the advice of his doctor.

Allardyce returned to the dug-out after two weeks, while Houllier left his post at Aston Villa this summer shortly after having heart surgery.

But Bond, the man who will take charge of Spurs for tomorrow’s Europa League game at Rubin Kazan, revealed that Redknapp had been planning the procedure for some time and insisted the former Portsmouth boss would not be put off the prospect of football management because of the scare.

“This will not knock Harry’s desire to manage, no chance,” Bond said. “You give him two days off and he will come back rejuvenated. It’s nothing really for us to worry about. It’s happened. The procedure has come and gone. I have spoken to Harry and he is fine. While no-one wants to see anyone have any type of operation, it is a simple procedure and, hopefully, he will be back within a couple of days so everything will be fine.”

Spurs chairman Daniel Levy wished Redknapp a speedy recovery, saying in a statement: “We are delighted the operation went so smoothly and successfully. Knowing Harry, he will want to rush back, but it’s important that he only does so when he has recovered properly.”

It will be left to medical staff treating Redknapp to decide whether he should be allowed to return to work after Spurs come back from tonight’s Group A game in Russia.

Redknapp gave Bond the team that will play tomorrow earlier in the week and the former Bournemouth manager and first-team coach Joe Jordan will be in the dug-out tomorrow while their boss rests in London.

Redknapp conceded last year that he struggles to cope with the stresses of modern-day football management. After admitting taking heart pills, the Spurs manager said in March 2010: “After a game I cannot sleep, there is too much going on in my head as I go over moves, think about gameplans, think about which player has had a good or bad game – and it’s worse if you lose.”

Redknapp is a workaholic who regularly makes a 250-mile round trip from his Sandbanks home in Dorset to the club’s training ground in Chigwell, Essex. He shares the journey with Bond, who said that he had seen no sign that the manager’s health had deteriorated recently.

“I didn’t notice anything different in how he was,” Bond said. “Maybe Harry felt a slight change in himself that nobody else could have noticed or picked up on.”