"I saw in the reactions of my relatives the fear they had had of losing me"

Fiorentina player Edoardo Bove, who suffered a cardio-respiratory arrest on 1 December in a match against Inter Milan, said that without football he now feels "incomplete", something he likened to "losing a great love".

"I live this experience with ups and downs. Football is my form of expression, without it I don't feel the same, I feel like I'm missing something, like I think it happens to a singer if they lose their voice. It's a situation that can be compared to a person who has lost a great love," he said in his first public appearance after being medically cleared.

The 22-year-old midfielder was cleared after 12 days in hospital and the implantation of a subcutaneous defibrillator, a mandatory condition given his condition at the time. "Right now I feel incomplete, empty, as if something is missing. I know it takes time, a lot of courage, but I'm getting help to start a path of analysis of myself," he said.

"I woke up in the hospital without remembering anything and only when I saw the reactions of family, friends, strangers who were happy to see me did I realise that they had been afraid of losing me," he added. The player thanked the support and affection he received, which he defined as ‘special’ because it went ‘beyond colours, flags and teams".

He also took the opportunity to highlight the importance of being assisted immediately: "I am lucky because of how things happened: everything was in the right place at the right time and in thirteen minutes I was in hospital. Unfortunately, there are many testimonies of people who have lost loved ones because there was no speed in the assistance".

"First aid is important, and that is the main reason why I am here today. My episode made me realise how thin the line is between life and death and how much we depend on those around us. The more information there is about first aid, the safer we will all be," he added.

Should he decide to keep the device in place, Bove will have to continue his career outside Serie A, where regulations are inflexible. Denmark's Christian Eriksen and Daily Blind of the Netherlands play with a similar device in the Premier League and LaLiga, at Manchester United and Girona respectively.