Fabrice Muamba sent Christian Eriksen a message saying that he is ready if the Dane needs someone to talk to regarding his cardiac arrest, the former Bolton midfielder has revealed.
When Eriksen collapsed during Denmark’s opening group game against Finland, it brought back memories of Muamba’s collapse at White Hart Lane back in 2012 for many Spurs fans.
The former England Under-21 international, like Eriksen, suffered a cardiac arrest on the pitch and had the thoughtful and timely action of the medical staff to thank for his subsequent recovery.
The incident forced Muamba to retire from the game and, while it remains to be seen if Eriksen will be able to continue playing, the former Bolton man insisted that the Inter star’s health is by far the best news to come out of the Euros.
When asked about the former Spurs man’s collapse, Muamba told Cheshire Live: “With Christian, we’re both from the same sport. I said to him, if he ever needed a person, someone to talk to about it, feel free to let me know.
“I’ll share my experience with him. It’s been a heavy two weeks for him. You want to give him space. When the time comes round I’m sure we’ll be able to sit down and have a conversation.
“You worry about the individual. If there’s anything good that can happen during this Euro, it’s that Christian Eriksen is ok.
MORE SPURS STORIES
“That’s the most important thing to me, regardless of whoever wins the Euros. The most important thing is how well Christian Eriksen has responded and the recovery that he has made so far has been remarkable.”
Muamba also spoke about the importance of people learning to administer CPR and the need to have defibrillators around in every single building.
He added: “People do speak about it, but I think to see it now with not just me, but to witness it live on TV, at I think it was 3 o’clock in the afternoon on a Saturday.
“The game is being watched worldwide, massive tournament, to see a young fit man falling down and the reason being cardiac arrest.
“I think the most important thing we can take out of it, is how quickly the medical staff got to him, how good it was that his captain managed to do CPR before everyone become involved. There’s so many good lessons to take out of it.
“Also, it’s important to have the right equipment, which you’ve seen from my own experience, and going forward now you would hope that kids should be able to learn how to do CPR, make it mandatory.
“If we can have fire extinguishers in every building, I think we should have a defibrillator in every single building.
“The kids in school from primary school to secondary school, should learn how to do CPR and if they find their friend in difficult circumstances, they’ll be able to save them.”
Spurs Web Opinion
The Muamba incident and other similar ones over the last decade are the main reasons why defibrillators are now kept ready at most sporting venues. As scary as the Eriksen incident was, I believe it will have a positive influence as it will encourage a lot more people to learn how to administer CPR and how to use a defibrillator.
Keep up to date with all the latest Tottenham news and opinion by following SpursWeb’s Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts.
