Former Manchester United player Daley Blind sparked huge fears last night after he collapsed during Ajax’s friendly against Hertha Berlin.
The 30-year-old Dutch defender was diagnosed with heart muscle inflammation in December after he suffered a dizzy spell in a Champions League game with Valencia.
With nobody close to him on the pitch, Blind slumped to the ground towards the end of his team’s 1-0 win in Amsterdam. His worried team-mates quickly raced over to the responsive ace, with medics also arriving within seconds.
Blind was seen clutching his chest during the terrifying ordeal in the 79th-minute before he was able to leave without assistance.
Erik ten Hag, Blind’s boss at Ajax, said: “Daley Blind’s ICD (implantable cardioverter defibrillator) went off. “He got subbed off straight away and he is feeling okay now, he is feeling fine. We will do research about this now.”
After returning to the first-team set-up six months ago after being fitted with a electronic device to monitor his heart, he explained his joy at being back playing.
Doctors fitted him with a device to help him called a subcutaneous implantable cardioverter defibrillator. This is designed to regulate any abnormal heart rhythms, preventing a potential cardiac arrest.
Blind said ahead of his return: “I am really happy to be back on the pitch. I had a little bit of tension beforehand because you don’t know how it will go. The doctor really needed to hold me back and step on the brakes because I wanted to get back ASAP. I wasn’t scared at all, I wanted to get back on the pitch as fast as possible.”
TheSun
