Rabat – Nine years after Abdelhak Nouri suffered a cardiac arrest during a football match, his brother Abderrahim has provided an encouraging update on the former Ajax midfielder’s condition.
Speaking on Dutch journalist Matthijs van Nieuwkerk’s podcast Schuilen in Schoonheid, Abderrahim said Nouri is now stable and in a better condition than during the difficult period immediately following the incident.
“He is doing well, he is stable. Especially when you compare his condition to how he was at the beginning. When my brother returned to the Netherlands after the incident, it was a very strange period. Compared to that time, things are much better now,” Abderrahim said.
Nouri suffered the cardiac arrest in July 2017 during a pre-season friendly between Ajax and Werder Bremen in Austria; he was 20 at the time.
The incident left him with severe and permanent brain damage after his brain was deprived of oxygen. Nouri remained in a coma for nearly three years before eventually returning home to continue his recovery with the support of his family.
Abderrahim also recalled a particularly emotional moment from his brother’s recovery, when Nouri smiled and laughed spontaneously for the first time after the incident.
“To this day, his smile means something completely different to us compared with the smiles of other people. It was a kind of confirmation that he knew who we were and that he understood us,” he said.
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Nouri’s condition has remained a deeply followed story in Dutch football, particularly among Ajax supporters.
The midfielder sprouted in Ajax’s academy and was seen as one of the club’s promising young talents before the incident brought his playing career to an abrupt end.
Ajax later retired Nouri’s No. 34 shirt in his honor, permanently associating the number with the midfielder and his legacy at the club.
Nine years after the incident, his brother’s latest comments offer a glimpse into the family’s ongoing journey and the progress they have witnessed since those early, uncertain years.
