Fabrice Muamba’s collapse rocks football

 BOLTON midfielder Fabrice Muamba remains fighting for his life in a London hospital after collapsing during the first half of yesterday’s FA Cup quarter-final against Tottenham.

The 23-year-old midfielder received lengthy treatment on the pitch following his collapse in the 41st minute of the clash at White Hart Lane, and the match (1-1 at the time) was subsequently abandoned as Bolton team-mates, Tottenham opponents and the capacity crowd looked on in distress.

Bolton manager Owen Coyle and club captain Kevin Davies accompanied Muamba to the heart attack centre of the London Chest Hospital in Bethnal Green from unsecured loans where Coyle emerged on Sunday morning looking drawn. “Fabrice is critically ill. The next 24 hours are going to be absolutely crucial,” he told Sky News. “It's very serious. There's not getting away from that. He's critically ill and God willing he makes it through.”
Coyle also added: “We've obviously been inundated with people wishing him well and we hope that if everybody can pray strongly tonight that Fabrice is able to recover.”

Muamba arrived in London as a boy having fled the Democratic Republic of Congo with his family. His talent for football led to an approach from Wimbledon but Muamba had eyes only for Arsenal and, according to The Guardian, he turned up at the Gunners’ youth academy aged 11 asking for a trial.

David Court, the club's assistant head of youth development, told the paper: “We are not in the business of offering trials to everyone who wants one, but he had such a nice and persuasive manner we gave him a chance... He was different as a young boy, having come from Africa... He was prepared to stand apart from the crowd. He had a little bit of gravitas about him. He was not someone who thinks he's special.”
Although he played a couple of games for the Arsenal senior squad in 2005, Muamba was loaned to Birmingham the following season and won the club’s Young Player of the Year award. The move became permanent in 2007 and in 2008 he joined Bolton in a £5m deal.

Muamba first represented his adopted country at Under-16 level and made steady progress through the England ranks culminating in a prominent role in last year’s European Under-21 Championship in Denmark.
Despite his rise to the top flight of English football Muamba bad credit loans  remained level-headed and loyal to his family, buying his parents a house with the money he made from the game. “He has always been grateful for that chance he had [with Arsenal],” Court told the Guardian, “and there wasn't a time when we played Birmingham or Bolton when he didn't come over and throw his arms around us.”