The video is grainy, but with the help of a spotlight, the moment a Russian footballer is struck by a bolt of lightning is clearly visible.Znamya Truda goalkeeper Ivan Zakborovsky was training when lightning struck him on the pitch.While his teammates were training near the touchline, the 16-year-old keeper was about to kick the ball towards goal when the incident happened on July 4.
Club general director Igor Mayorov said: “There was a clear sky, albeit overcast, but neither rain nor wind. If there was a thunderstorm, then we would not have been training.”Zakborovsky was taken to hospital where doctors put him into an induced coma.
During the Soviet period, Znamya Truda reached the final of the USSR Cup in 1962.While he suffered severe burns, his club tweeted that his condition is stable and there is no “life-threat.”Everyone acted quickly, very professionally, the ambulance arrived in eight minutes,” added Mayorov.
“Most likely he had a respiratory arrest, he received first aid, maybe because of this the child is alive.”We transported him from Orekhovo-Zuevo to the hospital in Lyubertsy. They made an ECG, his heart is normal.
“According to Mayorov, the 16-year-old keeper “continues to be [in a coma], so his brain would rest, get saturated with oxygen.”Mayorov added that the boy’s “recovery dynamics are positive.”