Fabrice Muamba collapses at Tottenham v Bolton game

Footballer Fabrice Muamba is critically ill in hospital after collapsing on the pitch during an FA Cup quarter final match.

Muamba, the Bolton Wanderers midfielder, fell to the ground suddenly - 41 minutes into the game against Tottenham Hotspur, at White Hart Lane, which was on live television.

No other players were near him at the time.

The match was abandoned as both teams’ doctors spent ten minutes treating him on the pitch in front of around 35,000 fans.

Muamba, 23, was taken to the Heart Attack Centre at the London Chest Hospital. In a statement tonight, his club said he was in a critically ill condition in intensive care.

Reporters at the game said he was not breathing as he was stretchered off the pitch and into an ambulance.

As he fell to the ground, Bolton manager Owen Coyle ran on to the pitch to see what had happened. Coyle and club captain Kevin Davies went with him to hospital.
Other players gathered round and Rafael van der Vaart, the Dutch Spurs player, and others prayed while doctors treated him.
Fans chanted Muamba’s name, while many were in tears.
Several minutes after play stopped because of Muamba’s collapse, Howard Webb, the referee, ordered the players off the pitch and fans were told the game had been abandoned.
Ian Dennis, of BBC 5Live, said spectators could see that a defibrillator was being used on the footballer.
He said: “You had a situation which was very eerie. Obviously everybody could see that Fabrice Muamba was fighting for his life out on the pitch. Supporters of both sides were chanting his name.”