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Dutch Soccer Player Suffers 'Serious And Permanent Brain Damage'

Abdelhak Nouri collapsed during a match for AFC Ajax
The midfielder suffered a heart palpitation, known as an arrhythmia, while on-field.
VI-Images via Getty Images
The midfielder suffered a heart palpitation, known as an arrhythmia, while on-field.

Dutch soccer player Abdelhak Nouri has suffered "serious and permanent brain damage" after collapsing on-field during a preseason friendly match for AFC Ajax in Austria on Saturday.

The 20-year-old Eredivisie league midfielder was playing for Ajax against German club SV Werder Bremen when he fell to the ground during the 72nd minute, before his worried teammates forced a halt in play and came to his assistance.

Nouri was immediately attended to by members of both clubs on Saturday.
VI-Images via Getty Images
Nouri was immediately attended to by members of both clubs on Saturday.

Nouri was treated on-field by paramedics and club staff before being transported to a hospital in a stable condition by a trauma helicopter.

Shortly after arriving to hospital, Ajax confirmed the young player had been placed into an induced coma and had suffered a heart palpitation, known as an arrhythmia, while on-field.

An arrhythmia is an irregularity of heart function that results in rapid palpitations caused by interruptions to electrical coronary signals.

In a series of tweets on Thursday, Ajax later confirmed that Nouri has since been diagnosed with permanent brain damage as a result of the incident.

"Nouri's brain functions have been extensively examined in the intensive care unit of the Innsbruck hospital," AFC Ajax said in a statement released on Thursday.

"The diagnosis which has emerged is that a large part of his brain is no longer functioning, and that the chance of recovery of these critical brain functions is very low.

"This is most likely the result of his brain having been deprived of oxygen for too long, after the midfielder collapsed during the Ajax-Werder Bremen friendly in Hippach."

Tributes for the midfielder flowed online in the hours following the incident, with soccer clubs, players and writers around the world sending messages of support.

Nouri, the product of Ajax's youth academy, made his debut for the club's first team in 2016 and played 15 matches for the side.

Club General Manager Edwin van der Sar said: "This is the worst possible news. It's terrible. We feel enormously for his parents, siblings and other relatives. Their suffering is impossible to describe.

"This has hit Ajax very hard as well, even though we were told to consider this scenario. The past days have been uncertain, and so many people, in different ways, have sympathised with his situation.

"I've seen that the entire club has been hit with this since Saturday. Abdelhak is such a great talent, but unfortunately, we'll never see how far he would have reached if this hadn't happened to him."

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