Fabrice Muamba has made remarkable progress since collapsing on the pitch

by Sam Lennon

A football boss has backed a Kent council after it was criticised for saying prayers for stricken footballer Fabrice Muamba.

Controversial national newspaper columnist Richard Littlejohn wrote that Shepway council had shown "absurd and vicarious grief" over the Bolton Wanderers star, who collapsed during a match against Tottenham Hotspur.

He said: "Before the start of the meeting, a vicar led prayers for Muamba, even though the footballer has absolutely no connection with the area."

But Dave O'Hara, chairman of Lydd Grasshoppers FC, said: "Littlejohn's comments are deeply offensive and unnecessary.

"I don't see why they shouldn't have said prayers for Muamba. He is a human being and it was a nice gesture by the council.

"When someone in the footballing world suffers death, or serious injury or illness, our club gives a minute or two's silence."

A national wave of public sympathy came after 23-year-old Muamba collapsed on the pitch after a cardiac arrest on March 17.

He has since made remarkable progress, but remains in hospital in a stable condition.

Just before the full Shepway District Council meeting last Wednesday, chairman's chaplain Alan Hewitt led prayers for Muamba.

He did the same for six British soldiers killed in one blast in Afghanistan this month along with the seven victims of the Toulouse gunman.

Council chairman Jennifer Hollingsbee (Con), pictured left, said: "I do not feel we should isolate ourselves from what is happening throughout the rest of the country and the world. We like to demonstrate that we consider the wider community, as well as our own, through prayers.

"Fabrice Muamba, is a young talented footballer, a role model for many young people across the country, including Shepway.

"Our prayers were also for the six soldiers killed in Afghanistan and the victims and families of the Toulouse shooting, all three stories were widely reported and resonated within the hearts of many people both nationally and locally."

Daily Mail columnist Littlejohn, who said he had been at the match when the player collapsed, wrote his attack on Shepway under the headline "Muamba lament runs amok in Kent."

He claimed in Tuesday's paper that no such prayers had been said at its meeting for recently-killed British soldiers or the Toulouse gunman victims -when they had.

Littlejohn wrote: "Perhaps now some of the Pray 4 Muamba hysteria will start to die down - though I wouldn't count on it.

"The most absurd manifestation of this carnival of vicarious grief was at Shepway District Council, which covers Folkestone, Hythe and Romney Marsh, in Kent.

"Before the start of the meeting, a vicar led prayers for Muamba, even though the footballer has absolutely no connection with the area.

"This might have been attributed to Christian kindness, except that no such prayers were for our soldiers killed in Afghanistan, the children gunned down by the Al Qaeda madman in Toulouse, or, for that matter, anyone who has actually died in Kent in the past week."

Littlejohn did not respond to a request for comment.