Exclusive Interview With Steven Taylor

Many thanks to Steven Taylor for giving The Mag an outstanding interview, fingers crossed we see him back alongside Colo by August.

Below we give you a snapshot of a long and entertaining interview which is in the latest issue of the magazine out this Saturday, available in all north east newsagents, outside St.James’ Park before the Liverpool match or buy online here.

When the injury happened did you instantly realise how serious it was?

At the time I heard a bang, I thought it had been a cheeky kick on my calf. My foot was all floppy and I thought it was to do with my ankle, ligaments or whatever. It was horrible, going off the pitch and looking at my ankle flopping about. I went in the dressing room and took my boot off, straight away Derek Wright said he thought I’d ruptured my Achilles and so straight away I knew I was going to be out for a long time. It was painful but to be honest it wasn’t as bad as the pain I’ve had with my shoulder injuries.

Shola Ameobi has an incredible record against sunderland, do you think we should get him some red and white striped contact lenses to wear every match?

Absolutely, I think he should get a tattoo saying ‘the slayer’! He is the king of the derby games, they should put a statue up for him in sunderland, every time they play Newcastle they must fear Shola because they know he is going to score a goal. He is an absolute machine on derby day.

The case of Fabrice Muamba has hit football really hard and especially in this technological age the response has been overwhelming. As a professional football does it hit you hard when you see that happen to a fellow professional?

I was actually his captain when we both played together for the England Under 21s, he was a really fit lad, a great ball winner. I was watching the match at White Hart Lane and just couldn’t understand what I was seeing, now I know what a miracle it is that he’s still alive. It has been incredible the support he has had, I was watching a Real Madrid game and they all were saying ‘pray for Muamba’, it has just been incredible how it has brought everybody in football together.