Fabrice Muamba on long road to recovery away from Bolton base

The midfielder is to spend the time with his family and close friends at an undisclosed address and has decided not to return to his home in the north-west.

Muamba has not been admitted to another hospital following his discharge from the London Chest Hospital on Monday. But, as is normal, the 24-year-old, whose heart stopped working for 78 minutes after he collapsed on the White Hart Lane turf, will continue to be monitored to ensure he has the best care.

Whether he can return to play again for Bolton is not yet known and Owen Coyle, the manager, has said that it is vital that Muamba should be given as much time as he needs.

Wanderers stand third-bottom of the Premier League, two points behind Queens Park Rangers, with six games remaining. But Phil Gartside, the chairman, is confident Coyle will guide the club to safety. "I've got the easiest job in the world managing Owen Coyle," he said.

"I have implicit trust in him. I can't tell him how to set a team up, how to do training, or set his staff up, I can only be supportive. People sometimes say he's unreal, he's always positive, he has faith – but that's him and that's why I love working with him. If he was the best kept secret before, he isn't now. It has been about the passion for his job, and the passion for his family – that's his own personal family but one that extends to his players. He works with them day in, day out and he treats them exactly like his own.

"I know what he wants and he knows I'll support him, and that's what we're about. I don't sit with him and analyse the game – I don't even talk to him about football. People think I must go and talk tactics, but I don't even want to hear the team when he's made his mind up on Friday afternoon. If he wants support on that front, of course I'll listen. But the relationship has got to be that way and it has been the same for every manager I've ever had here."

（一个慢牛）