Abdelhak ‘Appie’ Nouri: Ajax star out of coma and ‘communicating’ two years after collapsing on pitch

The 22-year-old suffered a cardiac arrhythmia during a pre-season friendly with Werder Bremen in July 2017

Abdelhak Nouri of Ajax (Getty Images)

The Ajax footballer who collapsed on the pitch and had been in a coma for nearly three years is “awake” and “communicating”, it has been revealed.

Abdelhak ‘Appie’ Nouri suffered a cardiac arrhythmia during a pre-season friendly against Werder Bremen in July 2017 and was rushed to hospital and placed in a medically-induced coma.

The 22-year-old Dutch international suffered severe and permanent brain damage as a result.

But his brother has now revealed that Nouri is back home having made significant progress and is even reacting to watching football on TV.

“I must say that since he is at home it is going much better than before in the hospital. He is aware of where he is, he is back in a familiar environment with his family. He’s no longer in a coma. He’s just awake,” Abderrahim told De Wereld Draait Door.

“He sleeps, he sneezes, he eats, he burps, but it’s not like he gets out of bed. He’s very bedridden and still very dependent on us. On his good days, there is a form of communication, for example, confirmation with his eyebrows or a smile. But you notice that he can’t last that very long.

“We talk to him like he’s not sick. We take him into our conversations and we watch football with him in the living room, for example. Then he watches. You notice that he likes that very much. He often shows emotions. Sometimes he is emotional, but often there is also a smile.

“That does us good. That makes you really appreciate a smile.”