Fabrice Muamba could return to professional football says Fifa medical expert He has received the internal automatic defibrillator so yes he could return. There is a young American player who had a cardiac arrest three years ago when he was aged 26 and resuscitated successfully and he has played more than 100 competitive matches since. Bolton Wanderers' doctor Jonathan Tobin, who helped saved Muamba's life by his swift treatment after the collapse, said no decision had been taken about the midfielder's future. Tobin said: "It is still too early to be having those discussions, they will be decided by Fabrice and the cardiologists down in London." Tobin also said he had been convinced that Muamba would not survive. "Once we got to the hospital and the cardiologists took over the lead of the care and I could take a step back, then everything just hit me," he said. It was just awful. I was sitting in the corridor crying my eyes out. The longer it went on without him getting a response - and it was 78 minutes in total. There was 40 minutes when he was at the hospital and you are just waiting for some to say 'No, it's...' The stuff the guys did at the hospital was just phenomenal.