Michael Watts was visiting Chengdu Blades, owned by Sheffield Utd, in Sichuan province when the quake struck on Monday.

He said: "I knew straight away that it was an earthquake and we did the normal thing of standing under the door for protection.

"But the tremors carried on and got progressively worse, so we decided to make a run for it and get out of the building as soon as we could.
"It felt like the whole place would fall down at any moment."

Official figures put the death toll at nearly 15,000 with 26,000 still buried in rubble and 14,000 missing. But Mr Watts said things in Chengdu were starting to return to "some form of normality" with the most severe devastation in the city of Dujiangyan.

He said: "Monday and Tuesday were absolutely crazy as we were still feeling aftershocks.

"It has been pretty scary to experience.

"But we haven't had an aftershock since Wednesday morning so everything seems to be settling down now."

Officials at the Chinese club have indicated all their staff are safe, although some may have lost relatives in the disaster.

A minute's silence will be held before their match this weekend. It is the first minute's silence in Chinese football history, according to Sheffield Utd.

Players will also wear black armbands and wear the salvage hotline number on their shirts.

Since the disaster, players and staff at Sheffield Utd's sister club have given blood, visited affected schools and donated more than 4,000 shirts to youngsters.

Mr Watts was fitness coach at Chengdu Blades in 2006 and helped the club to win promotion to the Chinese Premier League.

He made a return to Bramall Lane last season, before heading back to Chengdu last week to check on the club's fitness progress.

Sheffield United said it had offered its support to the Chinese government through the Blades.

Blades Plc chairman Kevin McCabe and club director Scott McCabe are planning to visit the disaster region in June.

What do you think? Post your comments below.

READ MORE

Football headlines.
More Blades.
More Owls.
More Spireites.
More Rovers.
More Reds.
More Millers.
More Ice Hockey.
More rugby.
More boxing.
Sports columnists.
All sport categories.