Nouri out of coma, but brain damage unchanged

Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Stricken Ajax midfielder Abdelhak Nouri, who suffered serious, lasting brain damage after collapsing during a friendly, has been transferred out of intensive care on Tuesday, and can breathe on his own.

The 20-year-old is being cared for at the Academic Medical Centre in Amsterdam, where he was brought on July 14 from a hospital in Austria.

“He’s no longer in an induced coma and has full respiratory functions,” the club said, in a statement issued in the name of Nouri’s family.

But it added soberly that “his condition further remains unchanged from previous updates and is stable, but with serious and permanent brain damage”.

Tributes have poured in from across The Netherlands and from abroad for the youngster, affectionately known as Appie, who joined the Amsterdam club at age seven and was a promising prospect.

Nouri suffered irregular heart problems in a pre-season friendly against German side Werder Bremen in Austria on July 8 and collapsed. He was resuscitated and flown to an Innsbruck hospital by helicopter.