Anton Zaborovsky, the 16-year-old FC Znamya Truda goalkeeper who was struck by lightning in a freak training ground accident, has left hospital after almost a fortnight and will be offered a professional contract by the club.
There were serious fears for Zaborovsky’s future when he was put into an artificial coma for several days after being struck by lightning as he trained alone on the edge of his penalty area in a horrifying incident on July 4.
Zaborovsky had been keen to plot a return to training when he regained full consciousness and will now be offered a professional contract at the club, where his teammates are planning a celebration for the goalkeeper whose promise had already seen him train with the first team.
“He was discharged from the hospital today,” Truda director general Igor Mayorov told Tass on Thursday. “We have not seen each other, his parents have taken him away.
This is the harrowing video of the moment Russian 3rd tier club FC Znamya Truda’s youth goalkeeper Ivan Zaborovsky is struck by lightning in training The 16-year-old is currently in a coma and on a life support machine.pic.twitter.com/aoyiiM0CNO
“We talked with him. He feels good and is undergoing procedures.”
Mayorov said that a club ceremony will honor Zaborovsky and Anton Basov, the coach who saved him, on Tuesday.
After Zaborovsky collapsed to the ground in a harrowing episode that was caught on camera, Basov gave the youngster artificial respiration and a heart massage before he was transfered to hospital in Lyubertsy.
“When I ran up…his whole shirt on his chest was burned out,” Basov recalled to RIA last week, admitting that Zaborovsky had briefly stopped breathing before he resuscitated him. “At that moment, I realized that lightning had struck.
“We once had a course in first aid. Thank god, everything immediately surfaced in my memory and I knew what to do.
⚡️Спешим сообщить приятную новость! Ваня Заборовский чувствует себя удовлетворительно. Сегодня он позвонил тренеру Басову Антону Евгеньевичу и поздравил его с прошедшим днём рождения. #знамятруда #ореховозуево
“The ambulance and help arrived quickly, which meant the child survived.
“The police arrived and spoke to us all. I watched the video of the lightning strike and the whole situation – it does not lend itself to any logic. This happens once every 100 years or less often. But it happened to us. Unbelievable.”
Club captain and fellow goalkeeper Vitaliy Chilyushkin revealed that Zaborovsky’s condition had improved sufficiently for him to begin communicating four days after sustaining his injuries.
Goalkeepers from the Russian Premier League responded to requests from Chilyushkin to send their support to Zaborovsky.
Former Russia stoppers Guilherme Marinato and Anton Shunin, Marinato’s Lokomotiv teammates Anton Kochenkov and Nikita Medvedev, Ural Yekaterinburg keeper Yaroslav Hodzyur and FC Ufa number one Alexandra Belenova were among those to send video messages.
