West Ham legend has pacemaker fitted

Brown, who played 474 times in Claret and Blue between February 1953 and February 1967, was crowned Hammer of the Year and capped by England in 1959, personified the transformation of West Ham from also-rans to one of the finest teams in the country.

A tough centre-half on the field and a true gentleman off it, Brown mentored dozens of future first-team stars through the Academy of Football and partnered the 17-year-old Bobby Moore on his debut in September 1958.

He was rewarded for an outstanding career with a Testimonial match in May 1967, when he captained a Select XI including Gordon Banks and his fellow 1964 FA Cup winners John Bond and Johnny Byrne against a West Ham side captained by his long-time friend and teammate Moore.