The day sport became irrelevant

Today was the first Formula One Grand Prix of the season. Kimi Reikkonen returned to the fray which meant there were six former champions on the grid. Also back was a black and gold Lotus livery – it was wonderful to see it. I shan’t say who won in case you have yet to watch it.

But in the UK all sport has taken a back seat to humanity this weekend. In the F A Cup Quarter Final match between Tottenham Hotspur (Spurs) and Bolton Wanderers one of the Bolton players, 23 year old Fabrice Muamba, collapsed and required CPR on the pitch in front of a crowd of 30,000 and millions of TV viewers. Medics spent six minutes trying to resuscitate the former England under-21 international on the field after he fell to the ground with no other players around him. Medical staff gave mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to Muamba, who was born in the Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire) but moved to England at the age of 11. They also tried to revive him with a defibrillator.

The 23-year-old remains critically ill in the intensive care unit of the heart at-tack centre at the London Chest Hospital but that is better than most of us anticipated after watching the event. I’m pleased to say ESPN had the decency not to show any close-up pictures of the event itself and concentrated on showing the reactions of the crowd and other players which was bad enough. The whole crowd, supporters of both sides, chanted Fabrice’s name as the paramedics and doctors worked. If anything could bring a man back from the brink it would be the genuine response of everyone present. After Fabrice had been taken to hospital the game was abandoned. No one – players, officials nor crowd was in a condition to carry on. Football would have been irrelevant after what had happened.

It’s only a fortnight since I quoted Bill Shankly - "Some people believe football is a matter of life and death, I am very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it is much, much more important than that." It was not meant seriously and, even if it had been, yesterday’s events would have refuted it for ever. Whatever religion / philosophy you hold a prayer or thought would be appreciated by his fiancée and family.