Fabrice Muamba stable after collapse during match

Fabrice Muamba, the 23-year-old midfielder with Bolton Wanderers, is recovering in hospital after collapsing during an English Premier League soccer match today.

Sky News reported that he’s breathing on his own after falling with no other players around against Tottenham Hotspurs in London.

A hospital spokesman said Muamba is in stable condition, Sky News said.

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Muamba fell in the 42nd minute in front of 35,000 stunned fans and an international TV audience.

His teammates and opponents almost immediately signaled to the sidelines for medical help.

“The other players saw immediately that this looked bad,” fan Paul Bowman told The Telegraph. “We could see they were trying to resuscitate him. Everyone was in shock. We all watched and waited. All the support staff and substitutes were on the pitch. Fans from both teams were chanting Muamba's name.”

Reports said he stopped breathing as paramedics and doctors from both teams rushed to his side.

“The players were in shock,” Bowman said, according to The Telegraph. “No one wanted it to go on. It was eerie coming out of the ground. No one was saying anything. There was hush, a silence. No one could quite believe it. It was terrible.”

The referee abandoned the game after doctors worked on Muamba for 6 minutes on the field, The Associated Press said.

Medics then carried him off the field on a stretcher.

Muamba is the son of a former government official, Marcel, who fled to England from a bloody civil war in Democratic Republic of Congo (then Zaire).

He told The Daily Mail in a 2008 interview that witnessing violence in his hometown of Kinshasa made him appreciate life all the more.

“It was very, very tough,” he said. “I saw the war. I saw people die. I grew up with it. It was scary. I didn't live far from the gunshots and the sound of them going off. It was difficult to get used to, especially hearing guns at night. It did have an effect on me.

“It stopped us going out to play football because we were scared we would get killed. One or two of my friends were hurt; one or two of them have since died.”

Marcel Muamba fled to England during a civil war that killed 4.7 million people.

His family joined him in England three years later.

Unable to speak English, Muamba eventually earned several academic honors and speaks English and French.

His athletic abilities earned him a place with the Arsenal football club’s famed youth academy.

He eventually starred with England’s youth team before recently signing a new contract. He has a 3-year-old son, Jeremiah.

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