SAM Ricketts has revealed for the first time how the Wanderers squad requested heart scans less than 48 hours after watching team-mate Fabrice Muamba go into cardiac arrest on the pitch.

With Muamba fighting for his life at the London Chest Hospital, the club opened up their Euxton training ground to allow some of the players a chance to train, seek counselling or take voluntary screenings.

It was a scene mirrored up and down the land as people in the sport tried to make sense of how a fit, 23-year-old footballer could possibly have collapsed the way he did in the FA Cup quarter-final at White Hart Lane.

The midfielder’s heart had stopped for 78 minutes but, thanks to the swift and decisive work of the medical team on the pitch, in the ambulance and in the specialist heart centre in Bethnal Green, he had a fighting chance going into a crucial 24-hour spell on Monday.

Back in the North West, the squad had sombrely returned by train to Manchester to await news from manager Owen Coyle at the hospital.

“Everyone was bracing themselves for the worst,” said Wales international Ricketts, who was on the pitch at the time of Muamba’s collapse. “We came in, but it was a horrible place to be. No one wanted to be here and it was very quiet.

“There was no training involved. There were routine heart scans for those who wanted it. We did that and then I shot off as quickly as possible.

“Fab was in a coma and we didn’t know which way it was going to go.”

The shock of what happened had prompted several players to request heart screening, and Ricketts was one of those who made use of the medical facility offered by the club.

“I had my heart scanned again just to clarify everything was okay,” he said.

“The lads had it done in pre-season, and have had it done again because of what happened to Fab.

“I hope it’s the same throughout all professional clubs. It should be. It’s such an easy thing to test.”

For the full-back, there was an added incentive to be cautious as a former Oxford United colleague, Andy Scott, was found in 2005 to have a hereditary heart condition that forced him to retire.

Scott’s problem – the same that killed former Manchester City and Cameroon midfielder Marc Vivien-Foe – caused him to collapse at half time in the dressing room while playing for Leyton Orient against Chesterfield.

Now manager of Rotherham United, Scott has called for all players to be given a cardiac certificate to prove they have been tested properly and regularly – a notion supported by his former team-mate Ricketts.

“Andy said he was lucky to be alive,” he said.

“He said he sat in the dressing room unable to move. He didn’t really understand why.

“He said he felt he couldn’t run. He just slumped in the changing room.

“He sat on the floor and couldn’t get up. He was sat there by himself. He didn’t have any energy and the doctor said he was so lucky.

“They just thought he was tired or ill because he was no spring chicken at the time.

“With this incident, I hope the protocols will be put in place to make sure it happens.”

From such despair, news of Muamba’s incredible recovery ensured that by the time Wanderers restarted their Premier League campaign, the mood at the club and in the changing room was very different.

“The atmosphere became buoyant; there was a spring in people’s steps, from being so low to the euphoria of knowing he was going to be okay,” said Ricketts. “It was a huge boost.

“We were off on the Tuesday, but we came back in on the Wednesday and it was a different atmosphere because of the good news. You can liken it to Christmas Day – everyone was happy. Everyone was pulling the same way and thinking the same things.”

Wanderers go into today’s game against Fulham on the back of their best run of victories in five years.

They remain perilously close to the bottom three, but the events of the last few weeks have had such a galvanising effect on the squad, staff and supporters, it now seems a case of when, and not if, the club do eventually pull clear.

“It puts things into perspective,” added Ricketts. “We all love football and want to play in the Premier League, but the gaffer re-iterates there are bigger things in life than football.

“Yet when we come in here we want to win.

“We have been playing against teams we really needed to beat and we have done.

“Momentum is huge in football and we want to stay on this run. Confidence plays such a big part.”