Former Manchester United player Angel Gomes has returned to his home after suffering a sickening head injury during a Ligue 1 match on Saturday.
The 23-year-old, now playing with Lille in France, came off worse in an aerial collision with Reims defender Amadou Kone, who was shown a red card for his challenge by referee Eric Wattellier.
Gomes suffered a blow to his head and required medical treatment on the pitch in concerning scenes. The match was halted for 34 minutes while medics attended to the Englishman before he was stretchered off and taken to hospital.
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But the initial prognosis is that Gomes will make a swift recovery. According to French publication RMC Sport, scans and neurological examinations on Gomes came back normal.
The former England Under-21 international star required a stitch to close up a wound on his lip, but he was able to return to Lille overnight and reportedly stood up during the tests.
The report claims Gomes is expected to recover ‘fairly quickly’ but Lille must follow concussion protocols, which means he will not be able to play their next game.
Lille boss Oliver Letang admitted they had "feared the worst" when Gomes initially suffered the injury and was relieved to provide a positive update on his progress.
"The news about Angel is good. We were really scared, we feared the worst at one point," the Frenchman said.
"The information wasn't very good at first. Finally, he left the stadium having recovered his mind, he was able to understand, to speak, he could move his arms and legs. We have rather good information from the tests he underwent at the hospital.
"To tell you that he was fine, he was already asking if he could play the next match against Angers next Saturday. We had a very big scare. We're still going to wait and see how the night goes but it looks like we have a happy ending. We're very happy for him."
While the incident overshadowed the occasion as a contest, Lille's players managed to find the strength to continue without their team-mate and sealed a 2-0 win at the Stade Auguste-Delaune. Goals from Bafode Diakite and Jonathan David were enough to take victory away from their season opener.
Despite being on the losing side, Reims showed their true professionalism and sportsmanship with a touching gesture at the final whistle. Both sets of players held up a Reims shirt with the words 'Courage Angel' on the back of the jersey.
But Lille defender Tiago Santos took to social media to hit out at the slow response time from emergency services and urged for a review into how the incident played out to avoid something similar happening in the future.
Santos wrote on Instagram: "Some players and I were very upset by the situation. It is unacceptable the time Angel spent on the pitch waiting for the emergency team and the ambulance to arrive. I think something must be done to ensure that something like this does not happen again. Thank you for your support."
