Emotional Walsh thank Luton's fans, players and staff for their unwavering support

An emotional midfielder Liam Walsh was eager to thank the Luton Town fans, his team-mates, coaching staff and manager Jack Wilshere for their unwavering support following the tragic news that he and partner Missy Bo Kearns suffered a miscarriage last month.

The pair had been excitedly looking forward to becoming parents for the first time after announcing the news on social media, before Walsh was withdrawn from the 1-1 draw against Stockport County recently to privately support his girlfriend, the Aston Villa Women midfielder and England international cope with the grieving process.

They then made the news public during the recent international break, which saw messages of condolences come flooding in for the former Everton youngster from a large number of Hatters supporters, while he received a superb ovation when making his return to playing in the 2-1 win over Peterborough United at Kenilworth Road on Good Friday.

Discussing the ovation received and the backing he has received from the rest of Luton’s squad, plus Wilshere, along with what it felt like to be contacted by so many Town followers, a hugely grateful Walsh said: “I was sent over an email yesterday of all the messages from people that I don’t know, never had contact with and the support on them was just, you get emotional reading it from someone that I’ve never met. Then I had a corner 10 minutes into the game and you’re hearing the fans singing my song.

"Everyone’s saying ‘we’re with you,’ or it’s just off random people you don’t know and they’re there every week supporting us and I couldn’t have asked for more. She’s (Missy Bo) in the same type of environment as well. I’ve had all the support in the world from my club and so has Missy. For me, early on I had the manager, Jack, he’s been with me every step of the way and Missy as well. She says every single day about how much he’s done for us both."

With Walsh, who was named Vertu Trophy player of the round for his match-winner against Northampton Town recently, he then took the brave decision to speak publicly about his grief during the media day arranged at the Brache this afternoon. Asked why it was he wanted to do so, he continued: “I think for me, because of where we’re both at, being out there in the public eye, especially when we announced the pregnancy, it was out there.

"Following on from that, when we were bumping into people, or stuff online, we were still getting messages of congratulations and I knew how much it would hurt us both. We had a good talk about it and the reason why we wanted to put it out there was because people like us, when we’re in the public eye and people know about it, people in day-to-day life, are suffering just the same as us, but you don’t hear about it and no-one knows what they’re going through.

"It’s only the fact that we’re out there in the public eye that they know about it, and the pain is just unexplainable. We don’t want to get a message out there on how to support people or what comes of it or whatever, but I think just you never know what some people are going through. So especially people close to you, just always checking up and being supportive of people, I think that’s the right way to go about it.”

On how both he and his partner have been able to begin dealing with the pain of coping with such a tragedy, Walsh stated: “For me really it’s just coming into football and trying to just, not get away from it, but trying to move on in a positive way which is being with my colleagues and doing the thing that I love every day. Then obviously it’s going back home and supporting my missus every single minute of the day, checking up on her and trying to get her through it.

"We’ve got the best support inside and outside of football that we could ask for, we know it’s going to take time, but we’ll get through it. With football, whenever I’m down or something’s going on, I need to be busy and try to keep my mind busy and occupied. Coming in for two and three hours a day with the lads, they’ll obviously see me laughing and joking, as I’m quite a bubbly character and loud character, but then you go out of football and it’s back to reality then. I think for Missy and me, we’re glad that we’ve got football there and the support there that we need."

Meanwhile, speaking about just how the players have got around their popular team-mate, skipper Kal Naismith added: “Walshy is loved by everyone at the club, Walshy’s missus Bo as well. When we got the news it was heartbreaking for everyone and what they need to go through with the grief.

"He’s been handling it well, he’s been into training, he’s been head down focusing on his football. He’s a huge player for us and he knows that we're all right here behind him and Bo. Hopefully she’ll be at the game (at Wembley on Sunday), hopefully we’re all celebrating as we would love to see her and see how she is. She knows we’re there for him and we’re right behind him.”