Sunderland footballer Luke O’Nien saves the life of dying dog on Wearside beach

Sunderland fans have been given even more reasons to love fan-favourite Luke O’Nien as he was seen saving the life of a dog on a local beach ahead of their upcoming game against Coventry.

Eyewitness reported that an elderly labrador was swimming in the sea at Sunderland beach on Thursday 24 August when it ran into difficulties and had to be pulled out of the water by its owner.

Passers described a young man running over to help the woman owner and O’Nien was seen pumping the dog’s chest until the labrador coughed up seawater and began to breathe again.

The news went viral on a football related Facebook page who described him as a “lovely young fella” and the story has since been verified by the Sunderland Echo.

O’Nien is expected to start in his sides upcoming Championship clash against Coventry City on Saturday afternoon and he has been a crucial part of Tony Mowbray’s team in recent seasons.

The 28-year-old joined the Black Cats from Wycombe Wanderers back in 2018 and he has been a regular fixture in all of the last five years as Sunderland won promotion back into the second-tier of English football.

O’Nien is currently the club’s captain and he has made a total of 222 first team appearances for the club.  But this is not the first time that the footballer has made headlines for his heroics off the pitch. Earlier this year in January, O’Nien was praised for coming to the aid of a stricken motorists just days before Sunderland’s derby match with Middlesbrough.

Sarah Whittaker, accompanied by her children, suffered a flat tyre on her way home from Dalton park. She had waited an hour and a half on grass waiting for a recovery truck when O’Nien arrived to give the family moral support.

Sarah did not initially recognise the footballer who said the family could wait for his van to get warm while they waited for the breakdown recovery team.

Sarah told Sunderland Echo at the time: “We were so grateful for the offer, we gladly accepted as long as we weren’t spoiling his day. At this point we had no clue whatsoever who Luke was, he was just a kind stranger. We were chatting for maybe 20 minutes before the subject came up about why we moved up here (as his accent isn’t northern) he explained he had moved up for work.”

Upon finding out that O’Nien was a footballer, Sarah, who is a Middlesborough fan said: “There are preconceptions about footballers, however, Luke breaks all of those, what a selfless, kind, family-orientated lad he really is. Not all heroes wear capes, some wear a Sunderland shirt.”