IT is February 2008. Wacker Innsbruck are taking on Sturm Graz in an Austrian top-flight game.

Thousands are watching as Besian Idrizaj, the forward on loan at Wacker from Liverpool, collapses on the pitch.

Reports tell of how the 20-year-old lay face down and unconscious, his twitching legs the only sign of life.

The crowd are horrified, particularly one father and son.

Sadik, Idrizaj's dad, and Qerim, his brother, were in the stands on that grim day.

"They saw me collapse," Idrizaj recalls.

"They were really shocked and, after that, I didn't want to start playing again straightaway because it was a really difficult time for my family.

"I just wanted to have a break from football, to think about everything that had happened and to appreciate that I was still alive."

Swansea City's recent recruit, now 21, may only be a youngster, but he already has a quite a story to tell.

And yet his football career may by now have been all over.

There were suggestions in the aftermath of the Wacker incident that Idrizaj, one of Austrian football's bright prospects, would be forced to quit the game.

Mercifully, speculation that a heart problem had caused the player to keel over proved unfounded.

"It was just a virus," Idrizaj stresses.

"It infected me badly and because of this I collapsed.

"I had the best doctors looking after me and I had all the tests, every one that you can have. There was nothing wrong with my heart."

Nevertheless, what happened threatened to drive Idrizaj out of the professional game.

Just as he and his family had been frightened by what went on, potential employers had taken note.

"It was a difficult time because I was out of contract (that summer) and people didn't want to take me," he says.

"They thought there was some problem with my heart and they didn't want to take a risk.

"They knew what sort of player I was, but they were worried about my fitness and I was worried that nobody would take me.

"I was without a club for seven or eight months worrying if I would carry on playing at all."

Idrizaj had been a teenage sensation, winning Austria's young player of the year prize in 2005, the same year he moved to Anfield.

Despite failing to make the breakthrough at Liverpool, the European champions when he signed, Idrizaj remembers his time on Merseyside fondly.

And, intriguingly, he claims he only has himself to blame for not making more of a mark.

"I really enjoyed myself there," he adds.

"I loved every second, but maybe I didn't appreciate it as much as I should have done.

"When you're young you don't really think about how big the club is.

"You never go home and think 'I'm playing for a great team'.

"I had some really good chances to play in the first team at Liverpool and it was my fault I didn't.

"I made mistakes but I don't really want to speak about them. Swansea is my challenge now.

"But it would have been a dream to play in that team.

"Steven Gerrard is one of the top five players in the world, while I also looked up to people like Xabi Alonso and Luis Garcia.

"You can always learn from these great players.

"In my last year I scored a hat-trick in a friendly (at Wrexham), but then I realised I wasn't going to play."

Idrizaj's first taste of senior football in Britain had come during a loan spell at Luton Town at the back end of 2006-07.

"It was difficult at first because of the style they played, but then Kevin Blackwell came in and I had a really good time," Idrizaj says.

"Sadly, we finished up getting relegated from the Championship, which was obviously disappointing."

Next stop, after the Wrexham treble, was Crystal Palace on a season-long loan.

But things did not go according to plan at Selhurst Park, where Neil Warnock soon took over as manager and quickly sidelined Idrizaj.

"I didn't have a fair chance," says the 6ft 3in frontman.

When the Palace stint was cut short, Idrizaj returned to his homeland on loan unaware of the drama which was just around the corner.

"The last year or so has been really, really difficult," he concedes.

"I have been wondering whether I would keep on playing, whether I am good enough to play.

"But the manager here has given me a chance to prove myself and I want to prove him right.

"I thank him for giving me a chance and I really don't want to disappoint him."

The first challenge is to get back into the swing of life as a pro after the long lay-off, where Idrizaj's only organised football came at the back end of last season with German lower-league side Eilenburg.

"When I didn't have a club I was going to the gym every day and playing football with my friends as much as I could," he explains.

"I played five-a-side and sometimes tournaments at the weekend.

"Now I have this chance at Swansea and I am desperate to show everyone what I can do.

"I am building my fitness up and working hard. I'm enjoying being back on track.

"There have been ups and downs in my career but there are always going to be knocks in your life.

"When they come you always have to stand up again."

Having done that, Idrizaj has sights set on running out at the Liberty with his family in the stands once more.

"It turned out I only had a virus, but if you collapse on the pitch and your family are watching, it's a horrible feeling for them," he says.

"My family have not been to Swansea yet, but they will soon and hopefully they will see me doing well."