Christian Atsu, a football player from Ghana, was reportedly “trapped” after an earthquake in Turkey but has since been discovered alive.
The 7.7-magnitude earthquake that happened on Monday, February 6, was felt by the 31-year-old defender, who has played for both Newcastle and Chelsea.
According to Portuguese news agency A Bola, Atsu was pulled from the wreckage and taken to the hospital after sustaining injuries to his right foot and respiratory problems.
Atsu’s current club, Hatayspor, is situated in the Turkish city of Hatay, which is thought to be among the regions most severely impacted by the disaster. Taner Savut, the club’s sporting director, and an interpreter were reportedly stranded after the earthquake in addition to Atsu.
Following the event, several footballers, including Onur Ergun and Burak Oksuz, were rescued. Ruben Ribeiro and Ze Luis, two additional Atsu colleagues, are unharmed, and Kerim Alici was able to escape the debris.
Before moving to St. James’ Park, Atsu spent time with a number of other Premier League teams, including Everton and Bournemouth. Atsu left Porto and joined Chelsea as a young player back in 2013.
He signed on with Hatayspor in the summer, and on Sunday night, just hours before the catastrophe that has rocked Turkey, he scored his first goal for the team.
According to reports, the incident has resulted in at least 2,619 fatalities and more than 12,000 injuries in Turkey and Syria. Just hours after the initial earthquake, a large aftershock with a magnitude of 7.5 struck the southern part of Turkey.
According to reports, it was once more felt in both Iraqi Kurdistan and Syria.