sport news Hull City captain Lewie Coyle used football as an escape following the death of ... trends now

To the outside world, life could not be much better for Lewie Coyle. He is captain of his hometown club Hull City, who are just outside the Championship play-off places, he is playing the best football of his career and, in February last year, he became a father when his son Ezrah was born.

But all of that only makes it harder for Coyle to accept that his father, Chris, is no longer here to see it. A former champion body builder who went on to become a legendary market trader in Hull, Chris died in June 2022 aged 59.

‘It was very, very tough. We lost dad very suddenly…’ Coyle’s voice cracks and as the emotion shows on his face, he asks for a moment to compose himself.

‘Not having him around is still incredibly hard. I probably find it harder now than we did initially because the more time you’ve not had him, the more realisation there is that you’re never going to see him again.

‘He never met my little boy, which I find extremely tough. I wish he was here to see that everything he sacrificed when we were growing up has paid off for me and my three brothers.

‘We’re thankful my dad made us the way he did. He instilled that toughness in us, that resilience we’ve had to show to get back to doing what we do without him. But I still struggle speaking about him not being here. I miss him.’

Coyle, who was made Hull captain a month after his father’s death, found going into last season incredibly tough but used football as an escape.

‘I never missed a day’s training in my time from losing my dad. He wouldn’t have wanted it any other way. The day after the funeral was probably the only day where I’ve not wanted to come into football.

‘I don’t mind saying that I didn’t honour him in the best way possible initially after we lost him. To the outside world they probably think I handled it really well but I didn’t. A lot of things I struggled with.

‘The football certainly helped me get back on track. That’s the best way to honour my dad and thank him for everything that he did for me.’

It was not just football which helped Coyle through his grief, but the birth of son Ezrah. ‘We found out three days after my dad passed that my partner, Aaliyah, was pregnant,’ he says. ‘She didn’t know how to break that to me and whether it was the right time but we now look at it as being my dad’s way of saying “son, this is your reason now”.

‘I struggled initially with him because all I wanted was to see my old man hold him. I know exactly what he would think of him, what he would be saying and the way he would hold him.

‘That’s the closest I’ll get to it and it breaks my heart every day that he’s never met him and Ezrah won’t meet his grandad. I’ll make sure when he’s old enough he’ll know all about him and how special he was.