Adam Johnson death: Team-mate Victor Bjorkung still gets ‘flashbacks’

Bjorkung has tried to block out a lot of what he witnessed that night at Sheffield’s Utilita Arena. But his memory is painfully good.

“I do remember most of it,” he says. “Everything happened so fast, and obviously I was on the ice when it happened. It still feels unreal. I do get a lot of flashbacks, and they’re not very pleasant.”

In the immediate aftermath of 29-year-old Johnson being struck, the players formed a ring around him as medics tried to save him.

“When we saw the injury and we saw what happened, we all knew that it was bad,” Bjorkung said.

“We wanted to protect him but also everyone else from seeing what was going on on the ice. He was in a very vulnerable situation at the time. All of us as players, we were vulnerable too, but you have to take your own ego aside and think what is best for the people around you.”

When the players returned to the locker room, he said the atmosphere was “quiet”, with most of the players crying.

“A lot of the trauma I’ve been dealing with and all my team-mates I’ve been speaking to after I left, it’s not easy.”