Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp has offered his support to Fabrice Muamba and praised the decision to call off Saturday's FA Cup quarter-final against Bolton.
Referee Howard Webb ended the match after 41 minutes after Muamba collapsed to the White Hart Lane pitch after suffering a cardiac arrest. The 23-year-old received prolonged resuscitation on the pitch and in an ambulance en route to the London Chest Hospital where he remains in a critical condition.
The news has rocked the football world with Redknapp, who was standing on the touchline when Muamba collapsed, saying: "All our thoughts are with Fabrice, his family, (Bolton boss) Owen Coyle and the club."
He added: "It was the right decision to abandon the game, everybody was in a state of shock and it wouldn't have been right to carry on. Football is the last thing on anyone's mind when an awful situation such as this happens. All we are thinking about now is Fabrice and his family."
The medical staff at White Hart Lane have been praised for the speed in which they tended to Muamba, while both sets of fans chanted his name as he received treatment on the pitch.
"We are immensely proud and grateful to the medical teams at both clubs, their response was immediate and professional," Spurs chairman Daniel Levy said. "Our thanks also to both sets of fans for their support and behaviour.
"Too often we read the negatives about football and yet last night, at a time of intense emergency and uncertainty, we saw the true humanity and empathy of the footballing family. Our thoughts are with Fabrice's family and Bolton Wanderers and we are all willing him to pull through. Events such as this put everything into perspective."
Muamba's former manager Steve Bruce admitted his shock after describing the midfielder as one of the fittest players he had ever managed. Bruce signed Muamba for Birmingham from Arsenal in 2007,
"He had a fierce determination," Bruce told Radio Five Live's Sportsweek programme. "He was as good as I've ever had in being able to get up and down the pitch. His fitness levels and the energy he brought to the team are quite remarkable.
"That's the unbelievable thing. He was a supremely fit young athlete. He's a tremendous lad. His greatest strength is his humbleness. It's quite unbelievable what has happened in the last 24 hours."
Source: PA
