THIS has been a harrowing week to be a Bolton Wanderers fan, but I can honestly say I have never been prouder to be associated with the club.

Watching my friend Owen Coyle, the chairman Phil Gartside and club skipper Kevin Davies speak under impossible circumstances has been tough these last few days.

Nothing can prepare you for something like this but when you see the dignity with which this whole situation has been handled, you see that some people have gone above and beyond the call of duty this week.

I honestly didn’t think I would be writing this week’s column. On Saturday and Sunday there were no words I could add to anything that had been said. Nothing mattered.

But these last few days we have seen some fantastic signs that Fabrice is making progress. Owen has said himself that it is a long, long road, but the fact he is speaking and recognising his friends and family is light years away from where I thought we would be at this stage of the week.

Inevitably, people are going to ask about where his footballing career can go from here but I don’t think that is a debate for the here and now.

The only thing anyone can ask for is that he is able to see his fiancee Shauna and his little boy Joshua at home. Everyone has done themselves proud. And I’m sure the fact the club, the fans, and the whole footballing world has pulled together has helped his friends and family.

I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating. This is a family club.

We got away from that for a couple of years but when the chairman brought back Owen, it was such a big step in the right direction.

The fans have got to know the players again because they are out there in the community. Alongside that, you have Big Kev and his charity doing work for people in Bolton that you would never believe.

That’s why this has hit home so hard.

Fabrice is one of our own, and even though the whole world seems to have felt it, the fact is, he’s a Wanderer.

I know there is a long, long way for the lad to go before he can even start to consider his future but I’m sure he wants us to use this horrible situation as a galvanising force.

Let’s celebrate the fact he is still smiling on Saturday and show Fabrice we’re still 100 per cent behind him.

IN everything that was going on at White Hart Lane the other night, I think one man’s leadership was rather overlooked.

Referee Howard Webb is probably the best referee on the planet, so Fabrice Muamba and Bolton Wanderers are lucky that he was in charge on the night they needed someone strong.

He kept everything organised and under control in what could easily have been a complete free for all.

It was one of the factors on a night when everything fell into place. The fact that the hospital was so close is obviously a huge thing, but so was the quick response from the paramedics on the scene.

They will have trained for that. Endless drills when nothing was at stake have paid off handsomely.

When Fabrice needed to be in expert hands, that’s exactly where he found himself.

I WAS coaching over here in the States when I first heard the news that Fabrice Muamba had collapsed.

None of my coaches are allowed to take mobile phones on to the pitch, and I keep my own in a little bag on the bench. At the time it happened, I could see my phone was going crazy, so I knew something must have happened.

Checking the score, I saw the match had been abandoned. It was only when I looked on Twitter that I realised Fabrice was in a bad way and I just stood there, completely stunned.

Soon after it happened, Sky were saying he was stable, so I dropped a text to Owen. But when he got back to me, saying he was still critical, you could only fear the worst.

I knew people over here kept tabs on Bolton, because it’s a team I used to play for, but I never knew just how many of the lads would be tracking the story. We have 207 teams and so many of the players were texting me, emailing me, just to say they were praying for him.

It hit my own son Craig quite hard because he had met Fabrice when the team came over here for the last couple of summers and trained alongside him.

The way he talked him through everything, and made sure he was okay, you saw what a thoroughly decent bloke he is.

So by the time I went to bed that night I was praying myself that I’d wake up to better news.

Thankfully, by the end of play on Sunday we were starting to get a much more encouraging picture. Over here, the story continued to get incredible coverage.

You see all the stars all round the world who have offered their support and it really is humbling. I’m so happy to see that all the positive support seems to be paying dividends.

ROBERTO Mancini has called for better medical procedures in English football, but it’s too easy to say that would have helped Fabrice.

From what I have been told, you can screen, and screen, and still never pick up some heart problems.

But I can understand that some footballers will want to test more regularly from now on, and that it will be a mental thing for others.

I think we should concentrate on improving first aid and making sure that if this happened to a regular Joe on the street, that we would know how to treat them.