English footballer Fabrice Muamba has spoken for the first time about collapsing during a match after a cardiac arrest, describing his recovery as ''more than a miracle'' but still not knowing if he will play again.
The Bolton midfielder was fighting for his life after his heart stopped beating during last month's FA Cup match at Tottenham, but he was able to walk out of hospital earlier this week and return home.
''For 78 minutes I was dead and, even if I lived, was expected to have suffered brain damage,'' Muamba told Sunday's edition of The Sun newspaper. ''But I'm very much alive and sitting here talking now. Some one up there was watching over me.''
The 24-year-old Muamba fell to the pitch 41 minutes into the match at White Hart Lane.
''I felt very slightly dizzy. It wasn't normal dizziness - it was a kind of surreal feeling, like I was running along inside someone else's body,'' Muamba said. ''I had no pain whatsoever. No clutching at my chest or tightness like you see when people have heart attacks in movies. Just an odd feeling that's impossible to explain. Then I started to see double. It was almost like a dream.
''I could see Spurs players running around in the distance and saw two Scott Parkers and two Luka Modrics,'' Muamba added. ''That was when I realized something was seriously wrong.''
Muamba praised Andrew Deaner, the cardiologist who left his seat among supporters at the match to help medics treat the player.
''He is the reason I have been able to hold my baby son again and continue my life,'' said Muamba, who is recovering at home with his 3-year-old son Joshua and fiancee after being discharged from hospital on Monday - little more than a month after he suffered the cardiac arrest on March 17.
''It would be great to play football again and I hope that will happen,'' Muamba said. ''But it's even greater just to live life and love my family. I'm a lucky man.''
