PAULO FERREIRA

By dixon9
April 10 2008

Portuguese Chelsea right-back had to be revived and helped to his feet by Rangers supporters in an airport terminal. The Rangers fans had spotted Ferreira and asked to have their picture taken with him. As the round of photos was being finished, Ferreira suddenly collapsed onto a chair and was brought round by one of the fans who remembered his first aid from the Boys Brigade!

"He came round after a couple of minutes and said he hadn't eaten anything since the day before.  He also said he had been feeling light-headed when he came off the plane.”

"At least those BB first aid lessons from 30 years ago finally came in handy. All in all, it was an eventful start to our trip."

"Paulo was on our flight, resplendent in a Union-Jack jumper.  We were behind him in the queue for passport control and when we got through to the other side, decided to ask him for a photo.

"I had taken a pic of my mate and him and was going to ask if I could get one with me in it.  But as I turned to shake his hand and congratulate him on the previous night's result, he was slumped over a chair.

"I got him off the chair and down on to the floor in the recovery position. I then made sure his airway was clear, while my mate went off to get help."

Rangers and Chelsea have had close ties for some time now – who knows, maybe Ferreira was lucky given the fact that this group of supporters might have been more anxious to have their picture taken with the player? 

The Rangers fans were flying out for their club’s tie against Sporting Lisbon in the UEFA cup.

Reports aren’t of sufficient detail to indicate the seriousness of Ferreira’s condition but it was probably lucky that this particular group were on hand and that the player hadn’t collapsed without anyone noticing for a while.

Fortunately, Ferreira came round after a few minutes and apparently felt grateful yet embarrassed and said that he hadn’t eaten properly for a day and had not felt good during the flight.

"We walked out with him to the exit to make sure he was ok.  He was met by a woman I presume was his wife and a boy."

Sportsman are very prone to viruses for some reason and ironically, some people who are very fit can sometimes have very sensitive bodies – when an illness hits – it hits bad.  (Any medical people out there that could explain why?).

Still, Ferreira was later out with the team celebrating the quarter final win against Fenerbahce!

In any case, a big thank you to those Rangers fans and good luck tonight against Sporting Lisbon – hopefully between our 2 clubs we’ll paint Europe blue this season!