Fabrice Muamba - Bolton Striker in fight for his life

Fabrice Muamba collapsed during a match between Bolton and Tottenham saturday.  The game was abandoned by Howard Webb after Muamba received sustained treatment from club doctors and medical staff.  The 23 year-old was said to be in a stable condition.

With 41 minutes of the game gone, Tottenham players signalled for help after Muamba collapsed. He appeared to have lost consciousness and there had been no previous indication that he was in trouble. The seriousness of the situation rapidly became apparent as Bolton manager Owen Coyle shouted “he’s just collapsed” and rushed on to the pitch, clearly concerned for his player.

Muamba received heart massage on the pitch for six minutes and was being helped to breathe. The decision was made to take him to hospital and he was carried off on a stretcher, still receiving treatment. Medical staff were using a defibrillator in the tunnel before they could get him to an ambulance. Coyle and Kevin Davies accompanied him to hospital. Treatment continued in the ambulance.
Webb consulted both managers and made the decision to take the players off the pitch and then to call off the game. The players of both teams were clearly distraught and shocked fans sporadically chanted Muamba’s name before being told that the game would not continue.

Muamba had played a typically combative part in the game until that point and with the score at 1-1 there was no obvious indication that he was in distress. He was running back to help defend a Tottenham attack when he collapsed. The response of the club medical staff was immediate.

Initially, there were worrying echoes of previous incidents, in which players have collapsed on the pitch. Marc-Vivien Foe died on the pitch in June 2003 after suffering a heart attack while playing for Cameroon in the Confederations Cup. Since then Miklos Feher, of Hungary, Daniel Jarque and Antonio Puerta of Spain and Scotland’s Phil O’Donnell have suffered fatal heart attacks during play.

Muamba was born in Kinshasa, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (then Zaire), and moved to England in 1999 after his father sought political asylum five years earlier. Despite not speaking English on arriving at the age of 11 in Walthamstow, he excelled as a sportsman and a student, captaining England at under 19 and getting his A-levels. He is married with a son.

He came through the academy at Arsenal, where he earned comparisons with Patrick Vieira for his aggressive tackling and hard-running. Arsène Wenger sent him out to spend a season on loan with Steve Bruce’s Birmingham City and, after he impressed at St Andrews, he moved there on a permanent transfer in 2007.

The following year he switched to Bolton for £5 million as one of the most promising central midfielders in the country. He has become a popular and valued member of the Bolton team, playing 141 games, and established himself in Stuart Pearce’s England Under 21 side, winning 33 caps at that level.

Gordon Taylor, chairman of the Professional Footballers’ Association, said: “He is a very popular young man. He comes from a great family and is a lovely lad.”

Rafael van der Vaart, who started the game for Spurs, wrote on Twitter: “Terrible what happened with Muamba during the game. We’re all praying for him.”

Tottenham defender Danny Rose, who was on the bench at the time of the collapse, tweeted: “Our thoughts are with everyone close to him.”

We pray for him that he has a successful and speedy recovery...