Muamba’s heart stopped beating on its own for 78 minutes in last month’s FA Cup match at Tottenham, but he has recovered to walk out of hospital earlier this week.

The 24-year-old Muamba told Sunday’s edition of The Sun newspaper that he “had no pain whatsoever” before collapsing, but added: “Then I started to see double.”

He recalled: “I just felt myself falling through the air and then felt two big thumps as my head hit the ground in front of me then that was it. Blackness, nothing.”

Muamba says “for 78 minutes I was dead and even if I lived was expected to have suffered brain damage, but I’m very much alive.”“It would be great to play football again and I hope that it will happen,” he told Britain’s Sun on Sunday newspaper in his first interview since his heart stopped working on its own for 78 minutes. “But it is even greater just to live life and love my family. I’m a lucky man.”

“I don’t even get colds very often, I’ve never had any problems with my heart. I remember feeling particularly fit and was really looking forward to the match,” he said.