Tom Lockyer will resume his playing career almost two years on from suffering a cardiac arrest during a game after signing a one-year contract with Bristol Rovers.
The 30-year-old Wales defender has been training with the League Two club having returned to fitness after suffering a cardiac arrest while playing for Luton in a Premier League match at Bournemouth in December 2023.
Lockyer returns to the club where he began his professional career six years after leaving to join Charlton Athletic.
He moved to Luton in 2020 and helped the club win promotion to the Premier League via the play-offs in 2023, although the victory at Wembley was marred by a collapse Lockyer suffered during the game.
He returned to action later that year before suffering the cardiac arrest against Bournemouth.
“It feels really, really good to once again be a Bristol Rovers player,” Lockyer told the club website.
“Obviously I’ve been training here for a while and I’ve tried not to think too much about it or get too excited about the ifs, buts and maybes.
“But as soon as I knew that Darrell [Clarke, Bristol Rovers head coach] wanted to get something done, it was easy for me to then make a decision about coming back home.
“It is so hard to explain but it’s everything I’ve worked so hard for over the last two years.
“Hopefully I can have many, many more good memories in a football shirt. I’m going to celebrate the little wins back on a football pitch and I just want to enjoy it. I wouldn’t be doing this otherwise.
“I’m doing this because I love playing football and I’ve got that massive desire to play football again, and what better place to do that than back home at Bristol Rovers.”
Clarke added: “I’m delighted to have Tom back with us. He’s a lad I’ve got a lot of admiration for, which has only increased after everything he and his family have gone through in the last couple of years.
“I always believed Locks had the ability to make it at the highest level and he proved that, playing in the Premier League with Luton Town, and his application and work-rate epitomises everything I know the fans love about our players.
“It’s been great having him around the training ground, and he’s already settled into the group well. It will be great to see him back out there in the blue-and-white quarters.”
