Nnamdi Ofoborh has opened up on his horrifying health scare that cruelly robbed him of an opportunity at Rangers.
The former Nigeria under-20 international joined Rangers from Bournemouth as a free agent in 2021 - signing a four-year deal under then manager Steven Gerrard.
However, Ofoborh was unable to play a single minute for Rangers before leaving the club in August 2023 with his contract mutually terminated.
The 24-year-old was sidelined for the entirety of his time in Glasgow due to a heart complication where his heart would stop pumping blood around his body. Medics suggested Ofoborh should, in theory, have gone into cardiac arrest when under physical strain due to the condition.
Thankfully, Ofoborh didn't. However, the midfielder did see his first season at Rangers written off quickly as the issues - which dated back years - were slowly unravelled.
Speaking to The Athletic on the awful experience, Ofoborh said: “I couldn’t hear much, apart from my heart racing: boom, boom, boom.
“I felt like I was going to faint. I crouched over and after about 30 seconds it went away. I was like, ‘What was that?’, but then started training like nothing happened."
Then, Ofoborh suffered the same horrible occurrence while playing. Unaware of the pain he was experiencing, Ofobroh recalls his coaches shouting at him while play continued as he feared for his life.
“My coaches were shouting at me thinking I wasn’t tracking my runner," said Ofoborh. "But in my head, I was thinking, ‘I could die right now’.”
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Oforborh's move to Rangers came with Gerrard excited by the prospect of his arrival, but expectations soon had to be tempered. And the Ibrox manager insisted the club wouldn't pull out of the move despite the health scare.
However, Ofoborh's ordeal in returning to play - which has since included having a defibrillator fitted and a nine-hour operation - was only beginning as countless specialists visits initially proved worthless.
“He had spoken to 30 doctors. Fifteen said I could play and 15 said I couldn’t," Ofobroh said of a discussion with a London specialist in his exclusive discussion with The Athletic.
“I said, ‘I don’t want to know about any of your other doctors, you are the top guy, so give me a number out of 100 on what the odds are of me playing football again’.
“He said 35 to 40 per cent. I started laughing and he looked at me funny, obviously thinking those aren’t good odds."
Ofoborh - who is now back playing for Swindon Town - understandably struggled during his time in Glasgow with the health problem limiting his involvement with the club - or society as a whole at times.
He said: “Some days I just wouldn’t go into training because I couldn’t take it. Just sitting around while everyone else is preparing for Celtic and these top European teams.
“There were times I wouldn’t go in for three days. That meant I wouldn’t speak to anyone for three days apart from the person delivering my food. I wouldn’t even go into the living room. I got so used to being alone and not speaking.
“Something would come over me that I still wasn’t part of this team and then I’d go home and be upset. A new day would start and I’d feel the same as I did yesterday. Some days I would say to Glen (Kamara), ‘Just go without me.’
“I wouldn’t say I was depressed, but there were probably signs that align with it.”
Ofoborh would then travel to America for a consultation with two leading experts in the field who would clear him to return to play - but the midfielder began testing himself without informing Rangers staff.
Ofoborh said: “I went out running myself way before Rangers knew that’s what I was doing. I had a meeting with Mick in December 2022. He said, ‘Tell me the truth, what have you been doing?’
“I told him I’d been on a couple of runs. I did a 5km on my 23rd birthday. My uncle had cancer, so I did a run to the hospital.”
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