Shrewsbury Town striker Ryan Bowman has confirmed heart surgery that he underwent earlier this week was a success.
The 30-year-old striker had previously been rushed to hospital with heart palpitations. He suffered the episode last October during a League One game away at Ipswich Town.
Doctors at Portman Road had to shock his heart back into a beat. In the days after, it was revealed the Ipswich incident wasn’t the first time Bowman had experienced a heart issue although the previous occasion was far less serious.
Despite the latest scare, which saw his heart race to 250 beats-per-minute, he was given the all-clear to continue playing and indeed he made 47 appearances last season for the Shrews, scoring 13 goals.
But Bowman underwent an operation this week and later tweeted a picture from a hospital bed saying the procedure was a success.
A host of well-wishes have since come his way, not only from Shrewsbury fans but supporters across the football spectrum. It is unclear whether Bowman will be ready in time to return to pre-season training for Steve Cotterill's side later this month.
The League One season begins on the weekend of July 30 and 31. Speaking after the worrying episode in that game against Ipswich last year, Cotterill said: "Ryan's OK, thankfully, he's had tests earlier in the week. We don't want to say it's a freak because he has had an episode of that before, but now he's got medication.
"He had his heart shocked back into beat by the people at Ipswich, which was really good, I need to give a big shout to all the people at Ipswich, they were first class during the incident. I spoke to Paul Cook (then Ipswich manager), to ask who their doc was, their doc went on, understood where Ryan was, how many beats-per-minute was going, which was too many, and looking after him and getting him to hospital.
"And afterwards we were sitting around for a good few hours to see if we could take him home with us, which we couldn't, so then Gregg (Jones, sports therapist) and Rory (McVicar, kitman) brought him back. Ipswich were talking about bringing him back on Sunday if we'd needed to go, so a big thank you to them, they were incredibly good and we'll be forever thankful."
Like Bowman, Wigan striker Charlie Wyke suffered heart problems last season. Wyke, who swapped Sunderland for the DW Stadium last summer, suffered a cardiac arrest last November after collapsing during a training session and spent a week in hospital undergoing necessary checks.
After a prolonged period of recovery and having been given the go-ahead by doctors, Wyke recently said he was aiming to be fit and ready for next season - which will see Wigan back in the Championship.
He wrote in March: "I am in a good place both mentally and physically and I’m really positive about what the future holds."
