Christian Atsu was still celebrating his first and winning goal in the Turkish league on Sunday night. But on Monday morning, a devastating earthquake struck Turkey and Syria and Atsu was trapped in the rubble of the team hotel. However, according to the latest reports, the Ghanaian winger was found after several hours of searching and was subsequently taken to hospital with minor injuries.

Six years ago, he helped Newcastle to promotion to the Premier League with five goals. Thirty-one-year-old Christian Atsu has travelled extensively in his career. He has experience in Portugal, Spain and England. But in recent weeks he has been wearing the jersey of Turkish side Hatayspor.

On Monday morning, a devastating earthquake struck Turkey and Syria, and the city of Hatay was not spared. The local football club could still enjoy the feelings of Sunday’s win in the morning, but thoughts changed dramatically from one minute to the next.

The team’s hotel was practically leveled after the earthquake hit. Despite this, the emergency services managed to quickly remove the vast majority of players and members of the management team from the rubble. However, a few individuals were nowhere to be found.

Winger Atsu and sports director Taner Savur were trapped in the rubble. Soon the information reached the club where Atsu spent the most successful part of his career.”We pray for any positive news,” reads a tweet from Newcastle with a picture of the Ghanaian.

After several hours of searching, positive news came. Several respected British media outlets reported on Atsu’s discovery. He was said to have suffered an injury to his right leg and was struggling with breathing problems. Apparently the sporting director has not yet been found.

However, in the currently very opaque situation, the veracity of this information cannot be confirmed with certainty. We will only be able to talk about certainty when an official statement comes from Hatayspor.

Update:: The information about his being found was unfortunately false, the player was eventually found dead under the rubble of the house.

Source: The Guardian, Newcastle United FC