Abdelhak Nouri, 20 years old suffers permanent brain damage

It all was such a great storybook tale for Abdelhak Nouri, the Amsterdam born was playing in the first team of his childhood team Ajax Amsterdam when this happened



He fell to the ground and both the Amsterdam medical team and the Werder Bremen medical team helped the fallen Ajax player and soon 2 ambulances were brought onto the field to help, Nouri had apparently fallen victim to heart problems.

Shortly after that even a medical helicopter was brought in to help



His heart arrhythmia was brought under control and he was transported to a hospital in Innsbruck (the friendly match happened in Austria, both teams had training camps there in preparation of the new soccer season) where he was put in the ICU department and kept in an induced coma.

Examinations of his heart had ruled out any issues with his heart but they could not give any indication how his brain had survived due to his induced coma. Yesterday they slowly brought him back from that induced sleep to further investigate his condition but sadly his club Ajax made public today that:

"serious and permanent brain damage"

Click to expand...

and that:

the chances of recovery from the damage is nil.

Click to expand...

"The diagnosis was made that a lot of [his] brain is not functioning. All this probably occurred due to a lack of oxygen supply."

Click to expand...

This heartbreaking, not just because his fantastic soccer futures ended but also his further non-soccer life has been totally destroyed. Who knows how damaged his brain truly is.

He was one of the brightest new young stars from the Ajax academy but sadly we will never go how brightly his football star would have shone.





Abdelhak Nouri: Ajax player suffers brain damage after collapse - BBC Sport

How sad.

Why are so many young athletes only found to have heart problems after they collapse on the field? It seems to be happening more often than not.

Moot said:

How sad.

Why are so many young athletes only found to have heart problems after they collapse on the field? It seems to be happening more often than not.

Click to expand...

What is odd is that a week earlier he had his full physical check up and nothing had been found.

Peter King said:

What is odd is that a week earlier he had his full physical check up and nothing had been found.

Click to expand...

That is odd...and frightening.

His family (brother and sister) have said about how severe his brain trauma is:

"He cannot walk, he cannot talk, he does not recognize us, he does not remember who we are. He feels nothing anymore and he cannot hear anything anymore. The longer you wait the better tests they can do. Yesterday morning the doctors did another test. The basis of the brain* is largely damaged and does not function anymore. According to the doctor he will never be able to walk, talk or feel is very, that will never heal again"

Click to expand...

* I think with this he means the temporal lobe where memory and hearing, language comprehension etc. are situated.

He will be flown from Austria to the University Medical Hospital in Amsterdam for further tests and care now that he has been medically cleared to be transported.

horrible