Muamba set to return (From The Bolton News)

Muamba set to return

9:20am Monday 9th April 2012 in Your Town

MIRACLE man Fabrice Muamba is set to be told this week he can resume his football career with Bolton Wanderers.

The astonishing news comes just three weeks after the 24-year-old midfielder suffered a cardiac arrest on the pitch at Tottenham.

He was clinically dead for 78 minutes before his heart began beating on its own again.

Despite his continuing miraculous recovery, it was still feared Muamba would never play professionally again because of the impact the ordeal would have had on his body.

Yet tests have now revealed no physical reason why he cannot eventually make a return to the Premier League.

Heart specialists are poised to confirm that they envisage no long-term issues that would prevent him taking to the pitch again. Bolton

target="_blank">Wanderers Supporters Association representative Dave Blackburn has described the latest encouraging twist in Muamba’s story as “a miracle”.

He said: “When we were talking in the early stages of his recovery, you just hoped he could come back and have some quality of life with his family. “Playing again never came into it.

“We all know he’s a fit lad but to hear he could be playing again so soon after what happened is completely beyond belief. It’s an absolute miracle.” Lifelong Wanderers’ fan and the town’s Tory leader, Cllr John Walsh, added: “It’s unbelievable news and I know everyone is absolutely delighted at the progress he has made so far. The fact he has progressed as well as he has done has delighted us all and if he makes better progress, then that is even better news.”

The leader of the Roman Catholic church in England and Wales highlighted the outpouring of goodwill towards Muamba as he described how prayer can “transform personal distress”.

The Archbishop of Westminster, The Most Rev Vincent Nichols, was giving the homily at the Easter Vigil, at Westminster Cathedral, when he focussed on illness and trauma in society. He said: “We hear of the agonies of personal illness and trauma.

“Yet in response we know there is a great wave of prayer, seen with unusual publicity in the case of the young footballer Fabrice Muamba.”

As The Bolton News reported last week, Muamba will be moved from the intensive care until at the London Chest Hospital to a high dependency unit at the Alexandra Hospital in Cheadle in the next few days. After further checks, he will then be allowed to return to his home in Wilmslow, Cheshire, with his fiancée Shauna Magunda and three-year-old son Josh. Although the revelation Muamba can continue his playing career is a massive boost to the Wanderers camp, medical staff remain eager to keep a lid on predictions as to when he may play competitively again.

Some signs of wear and tear still need to be closely monitored and the club — who have declined to comment on the matter officially — are reluctant to put too much pressure on him at this stage. It is unlikely in the extreme that Muamba’s return to training will be in time to play a part this season.

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