The East End doctor who rushed to Bolton footballer Fabrice Muamba’s aid after his heart stopped on pitch has described his recovery as “miraculous”.

Dr Andrew Deaner, a consultant cardiologist at the London Chest hospital where Muamba is being treated, leapt from the stands at White Hart Lane on Saturday to help the 23-year-old player after he collapsed during his team’s match against Tottenham.

Dr Deaner revealed yesterday how the footballer even had a joke with him shortly after waking up in the Bethnal Green hospital.

Dr Deaner explained: “I said ‘I understand you’re a very good footballer’. And he said ‘I try’.

“If you’re going to use the term miraculous, I guess it could be used here.”

The doctor recalled how he had been watching the match with his brother when he saw Muamba collapse and doctors rush to his aid.

He also praised the faultless work of the other medics.

“If you were going to make a film to teach people how to run a complex arrest, this would have been the arrest to film because everything went as it should. One thing after another just went right.”

He added: “He’s made a remarkable recovery so far. As things stand, I think his life is not in danger at this time. His neurological function is looking very good but it is early days.”

The medic, a Tottenham fan, works in NHS and private hospitals and is also clinical director for acute medicine at Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust.

He was hailed a hero on Twitter in the hours after Muamba’s collapse.

In a press conference at the hospital yesterday, Bolton club doctor Jonathan Tobin said the player’s “early signs of recovery have continued”.

Medics worked on Muamba for 48 minutes between his collapse and arrival at the hospital and it was another 30 minutes before his heart started beating again.

Stars from the football world have been turning up in their droves to visit the player this week.

Chelsea’s Ashley Cole, Queen Park Rangers’ Shaun Wright-Phillips and Arsenal’s Johan Djourou, along with Bolton manager Owen Coyle and many of Muamba’s teammates have been to see him.

Muamba’s fiance Shauna Magunda, the mother of his three-year-old son Joshua Jeremiah, and his parents, Marcel and Gertrude, have kept a constant vigil at his bedside.