Muamba remains critically ill

Fabrice Muamba remained critically ill on Monday morning as he continued to fight for his life after suffering a cardiac arrest during Bolton's FA Cup quarter-final at Tottenham on Saturday night.

Medical staff took two hours to get Muamba breathing again and he is now being closely monitored in the Heart Attack Centre at The London Chest Hospital.

A joint statement from Bolton, Barts and The NHS Trust read: "Fabrice Muamba's heart condition is stable, but he remains critically ill in intensive care at The London Chest Hospital. The family is grateful to the media for continuing to respect their privacy at this time."

Bolton manager Owen Coyle and chairman Phil Gartside visited the hospital on Monday morning.

Coyle, who accompanied Muamba to hospital, said the family of the player had been inundated with messages of support.

"The message is the good will, the prayers from everybody, they are so thankful and they want to put that on record - to say 'keep up the prayers, thanks for all the support,'" he said.

"They have been inundated as we all have, both in the football community globally and family and friends. People are taking a genuine interest and a real concern with how Fabrice is doing.

"We all know he's such a wonderful lad, he's a young man and we all hope that will help in this brave fight which he is undergoing at the moment.

"It's a difficult situation but the family are bearing up as well as they can. They themselves are very positive people.

"You look at what Fabrice has been through in life already and you can tell that he is a fighter. He has such a fantastic smile and that's what we all want to see again."