Terry Yorath – who has died aged 75 – will long be remembered as a tough and combative footballer, but two off-field tragedies would rock him to the core.
The Leeds and Wales midfielder lost his teenage son Daniel to an undiagnosed heart condition during a back garden kickabout in May 1992.
It was a moment that, by Yorath’s own admission, would put him on a severe downward spiral, with the star turning to drink to cope with his grief.
This would end in the breakdown of his 33-year marriage to his childhood sweetheart Christine, as well as a long battle to curb his drinking.
Yorath was also player-coach of Bradford in 1985 when a fire at the team’s ground, Valley Parade, killed 56 people.
Inevitably, it was his son Daniel’s death that hit him the hardest.
Yorath recalled that horrific day in 1992 in a memoir, Hard Man Hard Knocks, where he described seeing the 15-year-old fall ‘flat on his face’.
‘I was convinced he was mucking around so I kept shouting: ”Come on! Get up!” the footballer wrote.
‘Eventually, when he didn’t move, I went across to him and could tell something was wrong.
‘I picked him up and saw the blood running from his nose. He let out a groan as I held him in my arms and the next moment he had gone.’
Terry Yorath with his ex wife, Christine, who he separated from in the aftermath of Daniel’s death
Daniel died of an undiagnosed heart condition during a back garden kickabout in May 1992
A young Gabby Logan, pictured with her father Terry, who she described as a ‘kind-hearted and generous man’
Daniel’s was later found to have been suffering from a genetic heart condition called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.
Yorath – who is survived by a second son, Jordan and two daughters, Louise and the broadcaster Gabby Logan – was open about his struggles to come to terms with his loss.
His pain was compounded when, 18 months after Daniel’s death, he was sacked as the manager of the Welsh national side.
Speaking to Wales on Sunday in 2004, he admitted the experience left him feeling bitter – and led to difficulties in his marriage to his property developer wife Christine.
He said at the time: ‘The more she became successful in her work, the less I was in mine and my self-esteem dropped. The drinking I was doing to dull my feelings didn’t help and she works very hard and was spending less and less time at home.
‘We would occasionally go out for a meal together but did nothing else. We never spent any quality time together. The split had been coming for a while and I’d been looking at various flats. Then something hit me one day and that was that.’
Yorath moved out of the family home five days before Christmas. Then, the following April, his mother, Mary, died at the age of 87 after suffering a stroke.
Two months later, as the Welshman continued struggling with his drinking, he struck 27-year-old pedestrian Raziya Aslam while drink-driving after a night out, leaving her with a broken pelvis.
The incident led to him being handed a one-year community rehabilitation order, which included 60 hours of community punishment and a £500 fine.
The footballer arriving at Leeds Magistrates Court in 2004 to admit drink driving
Gabby Logan is pictured with her father Terry on her wedding day in 1991
The star in 1978 with Christine, Gabby, four, Louise, three, and one-year-old Daniel
He was also banned from the road for 30 months after admitting driving with excess alcohol and driving without due care and attention.
In court, his defence lawyer Richard Manning said his client had developed a reputation as a ‘hard man’, adding: ‘Sometimes it is difficult for a man in that situation to recognise he needs help.’
Yorath himself was deeply remorseful, and haunted by the thought that he could have been responsible for another parent losing their child.
Gabby Logan led tributes to her father today, remembering him as ‘a kind-hearted and generous man’ with a ‘wicked sense of humour’.
In a post on Instagram, she revealed that only on Wednesday she had a conversation with her father in hospital – where he had been suffering from a ‘short illness’ – about ‘whether roast potatoes were better with calves liver than mash potatoes’.
In a post on social media, the 52-year-old said: ‘Thank you for your messages of love and support today, it has meant the world to us.
‘Our Dad a warrior on the football pitch, captaining club and country, a kind-hearted and generous man off it, would have hated all the attention. (Well most of it).
‘The stories that have been shared by strangers with us today have been enormously comforting. He touched so many people’s lives.
‘We knew he had limited time, but it is still a shock. Yesterday afternoon I sat by his bed in St James’s University Hospital Leeds and we had a debate about whether roast potatoes were better with calves liver than mash potatoes.
‘That was the meal he’d decided he wanted when he went home, tomorrow. I left and went to work, he was looking forward to watching Newcastle v his beloved Leeds.’
Logan – who had to make an abrupt exit midway through presenting BBC’s Match Of The Day on Wednesday night due to a ‘family emergency’ – said he will now be ‘reunited’ with brother Daniel.
Gabby Logan with Yorath in 1998, as the pair launched a heart disease screening drive
Yorath was also player-coach of Bradford in 1985 when a fire at the team’s ground, Valley Parade, killed 56 people
The journalist added: ‘I am sorry he had to deal with so much pain, the tragedy of the Bradford Fire was forever in his heart and losing Daniel defined the second half of his life.
‘Thank you Dad for instilling your passion for fairness. Thank you for playing rounders, or making us race each other after dinner, even though Louise always beat me.
‘Thank you for not making me pay you 1,865,986 after I kept losing at cards on double or quits, when I was 8 years old. Thanks for teaching me the value of money by challenging me to eat a pot of mustard at dinner in return for £5 so I could buy a pair of shoes I wanted when I was 12 (even though mum was horrified).
‘Thank you for giving me a life long love of sport. Thank you for being a relentless tease with a wicked sense of humour.
‘And to the wonderful staff on J16 at Jimmy’s who cared for him with such tenderness, you are all Angels. I love you Dad.’