Ajax midfielder Abdelhak Nouri wakes from a coma after over a year

The 21-year-old  who had been in a coma after losing consciousness during the friendly match in Austria reportedly woke up on August 5, after more than a year.

According to reports in the Netherlands, Nouri regained consciousness earlier this month and recognised and communicated with his family, despite suffering serious brain damage.

In a recent interview, his father Mohammed and brothers Abderrahim and Mohammed told reporter Joep Schreuder, about the love and suffering they’ve shared while Abdelhak was in intensive care.

According to his family, the 21-year-old football star is doing better neurologically than he was few months ago and he is currently in a nursing home. He was moved regularly over the past year, something that cost the family a lot of energy and grief. But his situation is now stable and he is doing better.

The family is very satisfied with his care, father Mohammed said. “Yes, certainly. We have also learned a lot. We can give him certain medicines and food ourselves. We have to be able to do that, in case he comes home.”

Brother Abderrahim, 25, added: “With all due respect to the caretakers and doctors, they can never give the love that we have for him. If we wash him, we wash him very differently than the nurses do. They also do it with love. Many know him. They feel something for him. And the caretakers that don’t know him, say: ‘This patient really touches us’. They’ve also wept with us. And they were there in the moments of unrest.”