Bolton midfielder Fabrice Muamba could be back in action in as little as six months according to Dr Richard Cooke, a consultant cardiologist at London Bridge Hospital.
The 24-year old was yesterday released from hospital as he continues to recover from a cardiac arrest suffered on the pitch last month but Dr Cooke suggests that Muamba could be playing again in 2012.
"There are some footballers who do play with them and have had a similar history, so as long as he makes a full neurological recovery, from a heart perspective there is no reason why he couldn't resume his professional football career.
"With his heart stopping for so long, it was an amazing story how they were able to keep him going for such a long period of time.
"There is always concern that he might develop injury to the brain, but as long as the resuscitation was adequate, then you would hope he would make a full recovery, in which case you would anticipate he should be able to resume playing football.
"It depends entirely on the degree of recovery he has made already, but I understand he has made a surprisingly good recovery and all being well, I would not be surprised if he was back playing football in six months.""It would seem highly likely that he would have had a defibrillator put in," Cooke told Press Association Sport.
