Sykes felt unwell a couple of days after their clash with Turvey Park on June 27, and initially dismissed it as the flu.

But a few restless nights prompted him to go to hospital, and the midfielder's lucky he did.

"There was a time there in hospital where I was fairly shitting myself to be honest," Sykes said.

"It was blood poisoning. I picked it up from an infection and we didn't know where it was in my body.

"It definitely floored me for a week or so and it's been a process to get back to 100 per cent.

"The Monday after the Turvey game I felt crook and thought it was the flu, but I didn't sleep for three days straight and that's not like me.

"At hospital the blood tests came up with some sort of disease in the blood, and running through the body.

"They reckon a few more days (it could have been worse). It's the sort of disease if you don't treat it straight away, because blood runs through your whole body, it hits the organs and they can shut down."

Sykes went home at first after the initial hospital visit, but the next day received an urgent phone call to return.

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"The hospital rang me back and said 'you should probably come back in.' I thought it was only going to be about a half hour trip to the hospital and I ended up staying for five days," he said.

"They pumped six or seven antibiotics into me and I had to rest up. My body was a bit wounded because you're whole body is fighting the infection, not just one spot.

"It was very draining, that's for sure. Once I was out of hospital it took me a good few days to rest up."

Sykes has missed the past two games and is hopeful of a return in Sunday's big away clash with unbeaten Mangoplah-Cookardinia United-Eastlakes.

The health scare adds to an already frustrating season for Sykes, with a previous knee injury restricting him to six games this year after making the move to the Hoppers from Turvey Park.

"I've lost a bit of weight and stamina and strength, it's like doing a pre season all over again," he said.

I lost four kilos and I don't have that to lose. It took 25 years to get to where I was and four days to lose it.

"Hopefully I can get back to 100 per cent, get some games back into me and have a real good back end of the year.

"I'll give myself every opportunity (to play this week). I went to training (on Tuesday) and on Thursday I'll really push myself and do a bit extra.

"If I feel like I'm up to it, I'll be playing."

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