THE 1985 European Cup final was a blur for Ian Rush. He was out there on the pitch as Liverpool faced Juventus inside the Heysel Stadium.

His mind, however, was elsewhere.

As news filtered through of trouble between the opposing sets of supporters, Rush’s thoughts immediately turned to his family who were also in the ground.

Of course, there were no mobile phones in those days. So while unconfirmed reports of injuries and then deaths were delivered to the dressing rooms, the hour-and-a-half delay until kick-off seemed like an eternity for Rush and his teammates.

Little did they know that the casualties were confined to section Z where UEFA, in its infinite wisdom, had placed a neutral supposedly Belgian section just a row of chicken wire away from the Liverpool supporters.

Naturally, tickets for this area were touted, with Juventus fans quick on the uptake.

It was a recipe for disaster.

“It was difficult to focus amid mixed reports of people dying,” recalls Rush.

“A lot of us had family members in the crowd. That’s your first thought, ‘are my family ok?’

“My dad, my wife and my brother were there. They were in the stands but we didn’t know where the trouble was occurring or how widespread it was. It could have spread across into the stands or anywhere.

“If there were people dying we didn’t know whether they were Liverpool or Juventus supporters, or both.

“I had no idea if my family were safe when I went out to play. It was only afterwards when I met them in the players lounge that I knew they were all ok.”

Rush’s relief was replaced by harsh reality when rumours of fatalities became more than just hearsay.

A wall had collapsed after Liverpool supporters responded to missile attacks from Juventus fans, charging them on to the retreat.

Thirty nine people; men, women and children, caught up in the melee were killed, crushed to death beneath the crumbling concrete.

“Afterwards it was about the reality of what had happened on the terraces,” said Rush.

“That’s when it started to hit home. You really felt for the fans who had died and been injured, their friends and families. Football became secondary.”

What should have been one of the crowning moments of his career soon became a nightmare.

Before trouble flared on the terraces Rush’s only concern was whether he was fit enough to play after badly spraining his wrist in training two days earlier.

He felt a different pain altogether afterwards.

There are different versions of the circumstances under which the Liverpool and Juventus players were made to play the final.

In his autobiography, Kenny Dalglish is adamant he was unaware people had died.