Soccerphile Editorial - March 2012
More questions than answers as Fabrice Muamba clings to life
Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Cech may have inadvertently saved Bolton midfielder Fabrice Muamba's life.
Muamba, a 23-year-old Kinshasa-born England youth international collapsed from a suspected heart attack in Bolton's FA Cup quarter-final clash with Tottenham at White Hart Lane on March 17.
At the time of writing Muamba was in a critical condition in a London hospital, leaving the football world stunned at a tragedy which unfolded in front of more than 30,000 fans and a wordwide television audience.
Yet Muamba's predicament could have been far worse if it wasn't for the head injury suffered by Chelsea goalkeeper Cech back in October 2006. On that occasion the Czech international suffered a depressed skull fracture after receiving a knee to the head from Reading midfielder Stephen Hunt.
With his goalkeeper forced to wait half an hour in the dressing room for an ambulance to arrive, then-Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho blasted the slow response.
"There are some things that leave me in a very emotional situation," Mourinho said after the match. "My goalkeeper was waiting for an ambulance for 30 minutes. This is something English football has to think about. This is much more important than football."
He was right, and the Premier League acted accordingly. One of its most significant changes was to ensure clubs have an ambulance on hand at every game for the exclusive use of players, and it was this measure which may have saved Muamba's life.
Another was the decision to ensure every club's doctor sits on this bench, with paramedics stationed pitchside. This meant Muamba received immediate and potentially life-saving medical attention. Had the Bolton midfielder been forced to wait, he would almost certainly have perished on the pitch.
The quick reaction of paramedics and referee Howard Webb - who promptly abandoned the match after consulting with both teams - has earned praised. Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy was quick to recognise the efforts of both medical staff and fans on an emotional day.
"We are immensely proud and grateful to the medical teams at both clubs, their response was immediate and professional. Our thanks also to both sets of fans for their support and behaviour. Too often we read the negatives about football and yet (Saturday), at a time of intense emergency and uncertainty, we saw the true humanity and empathy of the footballing family," Levy said in a statement.
What no one can say is whether Muamba will survive what appears to have been a serious cardiac arrest. If he does, he may never play football again, though that will hardly be a major concern to the friends and family of a young man still in grave danger.
What is obvious is that Muamba was an immensely well-liked character within the game. By all accounts softly-spoken and humble, the hard-working midfielder arrived in England as a refugee from the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo. His story is one of personal triumph in the face of adversity, yet sadly most have only become aware of it in the wake of his shocking collapse.
Fans are now desperate for the popular midfielder to pull through. The Premier League has already experienced the loss of one its stars to a similar ailment, after former West Ham United and Manchester City midfielder Marc-Viven Foé passed away on the pitch while representing his national team at the 2003 Confederations Cup in France.
Foé is one of a growing number of professional footballers to have lost their lives either playing or in training. The list includes former Benfica Miklós Fehér, young Sevilla wing-back Antonio Puerta, one-time Celtic midfielder Phil O'Donnell, Espanyol club captain Daniel Jarque and the legendary Japanese defender Naoki Matsuda. What troubles medics is the growing prevalence of heart defects among professional footballers, with many now calling for compulsorary annual check-ups of players.
Such a move will come too late for Fabrice Muamba, still clinging to life in a Bethnal Green hospital. His horrific ordeal has reminded football fans the world over of the fragility of life. What once sounded like a throwaway cliché - that there is more to life than football - is now a desperate focal point for distraught supporters, with football fans the world over simply desperate for Muamba to recover and resume his life with fiancé and small child.
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