HEARTS striker Cole Stockton insists he will always be driven on my the memory of his late father, Stephen, after revealing how his dad’s passing coincided with his own battle against a life-threatening bout of septicaemia.

Now a burly, imposing presence at the age of 23, the Jambos’ summer signing was 13 when he lost all feeling in his left leg following a trial with Tranmere Rovers. 

The potential damage to his burgeoning football career was put in perspective when he was rushed to hospital and diagnosed with a serious blood disease. 

Without that treatment, the young Cole Stockton could have been dead within 48 hours, doctors said. 

“I was on trial at Tranmere at the time and remember playing a game and coming off with a sore back,” he said. “I used to play for two teams then, so I went and played for my Sunday League team that same afternoon.

“When I woke up the next morning, I couldn’t move my left leg. I went to the doctors and they did MRI scans and that’s when they saw the infection in my groin area. If I hadn’t had it checked out I’d have probably snuffed it. They said if I hadn’t gone to the hospital within 48 hours I’d have passed out on the couch I was on.” While Cole pulled through, he had to contend with tragedy as liver disease took the life of his father in the same period. 

“I remember the night my dad passed – that night I had a dream that I was playing football with him,” he said. “To me, that’s like he came to me first to say ‘I’m here for you’. He’s always inspired me. Everywhere I go, I know he’s there with me. Everything I do in my career is for him.”