Mitchell Cole’s former manager Mark Stimson has spoken of his shock at the death of the ex-Grays, Stevenage and England C winger at the age of only 27.
“I am sitting here reading all the tributes to him on the internet and I just feel numb,” said Thurrock boss Mark Stimson, who signed Cole for both Boro and the Blues.
Cole enjoyed a brilliant Non-League career before moving into the League but was forced to retire from professional football in February last year when with League Two Oxford.
He had played with the heart condition hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, where the heart muscle thickens without any obvious cause, since first being diagnosed when he was a 16-year-old at West Ham.
Cole, who also had spells at Southend and Northampton, won the FA Trophy three times, the Conference South title with Grays, the Blue Square Bet Premier with Boro and his seven goals in 12 appearances for England C make him the second-highest goalscorer of all-time for the Non-League national side, behind Mark Carter.
He had continued to play part-time over the past season-and-a-half in spells with Stotfold, Hitchin Town, Arlesey and Basildon United, and tweeted on Friday afternoon that he was off that night for “the usual kickabout with the lads” that evening.
Stimson added: “I phoned Mitchell recently when I’d seen he’d played for Basildon to see if he’d come and play for me again, but he said he didn’t want to step up because he was concentrating on his work as an agent and happy turning out with his mates.
“We had some great times together at Grays and Stevenage. People think Non-League players can’t be great, but Mitch was. He was a special player, an old-fashioned left-winger who could deliver a cross.
“I’ll never forget the goal he got for us at Wembley – the first competitive game there – in 2007, when we came from 2-0 down to beat Kidderminster. The pace and drive he showed that day turned the game for us and he always had the ability to do it.
Sad loss
“If it wasn’t for his heart condition, there is no doubt he would have been a star at the highest level.”
Cole leaves wife Charly, daughter Rhys, 7, and son Georgie, 5.
Charly, the sister of England and Liverpool star Joe Cole, is due to give birth to their third child in the coming days.
Stimson said: “He’s such a sad loss and I can’t stop thinking about Charly and the kids. I think I speak for the whole of football when I say they are in our thoughts.”
Cole had spoken regularly in the media and at a conference in America about his condition since Bolton star Fabrice Muamba collapsed on the pitch earlier this year.
