The man who ‘died’ at White Hart Lane has described the moment he learnt of Bafetimbi Gomis collapsing on the same pitch: “Not that place again.”
Fabrice Muamba, 26, suffered a cardiac arrest during an FA Cup quarter-final between Tottenham and Bolton in 2012, falling to the ground while no one was standing near him.
His heart stopped for 78 minutes.
Thanks to the medics at White Hart Lane – and a consultant cardiologist who was attending the game as a supporter – Muamba survived, although he retired from football on medical advice just five months later.
And when Swansea’s Gomis fell to the ground just yards from the very same spot on Wednesday night after only six minutes of their Premier League match against Spurs, everybody watching and who heard the news thought the same thing.
Muamba, who is now working towards a career in journalism, said: “I was busy trying to concentrate on my uni work – that takes priority nowadays – but I heard about Gomis through social media.
“You are not sure of the full details but you can put two and two together and then it came out that he collapsed when no one was around him and, when I saw that it was White Hart Lane, I thought, ‘Oh no, not that place again’.
“I tried to put all that to one side and just carry on with my work but it was very difficult.”
Despite sounding very familiar, the two cases are in fact quite different.
Gomis had suffered a vasovagal attack – a loss of consciousness through low blood pressure because of a slowed-down heart-rate. He was taken off on a stretcher wearing an oxygen mask after several minutes’ treatment on the pitch.
But he has suffered with the condition since he was a teenager and had indeed collapsed three times during his playing days at French club Lyon and once during a training session with the French national team.
Muamba’s case, however, came out of the blue.
He said: “It’s very different to what happened to me. Bafetimbi Gomis has a history of medical issues.
“I did not have a history, so it was a real surprise when it happened to me.
“But it would not have been a surprise to the medical staff there dealing with him because it was not the first time it had happened.
“With me, no one could understand it.
“But he would have been in excellent hands with the medics, who would have done an excellent job of looking after him.”
Swansea manager Garry Monk has already said that Gomis, who stayed in hospital overnight as a precaution, will be available for their next game against Liverpool on March 16. Muamba is not convinced.
He said: “I am sure he will not be allowed to play for a couple of weeks or even a couple of months. I am 100 per cent sure he’ll see a specialist. He will probably see three specialists and two of them need to give him the all-clear before he can play again.”
Muamba was not the only one fearing the worst.
Tottenham keeper Brad Friedel, left, said: “I was sitting in the dugout, as I was for the Bolton game [in 2012]. As soon as it happened, the first thing that went through my mind was Fabrice.
“Everybody inside the stadium no doubt had the same thought. My first thought was, ‘Please no, not again’.
“We thought it was serious. It is not normal for someone to collapse. But word got back to us about his condition after a minute or so. That’s why there wasn’t the same panic this time around.”
Miracles, it seems, do happen.
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