UNDERNEATH Edoardo Bove’s skin, next to his left armpit and a few inches from his heart, is the “machine inside” that he prays never needs to be switched on.
This device, which is smaller than a standard mobile phone, is an internal defibrillator that would automatically kick-start his heart should it ever stop working.
It is the sort of thing someone might have much later in life as an emergency back-up for a failing ticker.
But while it is unusual to have one at 23, Bove accepts that this electronic box is now part of “my new body” – and he is simply grateful for having a “second chance of life”.
That is because fifteen months ago the Italian footballer, then an AS Roma player, suffered an on-pitch cardiac arrest during a Serie A match.
Bove was playing on loan for Fiorentina against Inter Milan on 1 December 2024 when he unexpectedly collapsed to the ground and was then placed in a medically induced coma.
MAN DOWN
Ex-Man Utd star, 50, OUT as manager of club battling relegation to non-league
Welcome offer
Get a £50 welcome bonus when you join Sun Vegas and spend £10
Under local anaesthetic surgery, medics later inserted a subcutaneous implantable defibrillator (S-ICD), which may save his life should a similar scenario occur.
But as he prepares for a new life with Watford – having signed a five-and-a-half-year deal at Vicarage Road – he says he is “not scared” about returning to his “passion” of professional football.
As he builds back his fitness and targets a comeback in the spring, the one thing he has yet to do is decide upon an appropriate nickname for the contraption that is visible underneath his new Hornets shirt.
Bove said: “I’ve had time to train and to understand how to get punches here and how to move.
“I’ve even trained how to fall and to understand my new body – because I’ve a machine inside.
“I’m really confident with my body. I understand it’s a part of me now.
“He doesn’t have a name, my S-ICD, but it’s part of me and I’m really confident about that. It doesn’t scare me
“It’s between the ribs and the skin. If you touch it, you can feel it. Even without the shirt you can see it.
“But it doesn’t give me problems during movements. I think it’s worse having something in the knee or the foot. I’ve learned to accept what happened.”
Bove has exchanged “a few messages” with Danish footballer Christian Eriksen, who suffered a cardiac arrest during Denmark’s Euro 2020 match against Finland in June 2021.
The former Manchester United playmaker – who was resuscitated on the pitch using CPR – has a type of implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) and now stars in Germany for Wolfsburg.
Strict Italian football regulations prevent Bove from playing in his homeland with such a device and this meant a move abroad was his only option.
Bove – who considers himself to be an “aggressive” box-to-box midfielder – is not yet up to speed to play for Watford in the “physical game” of the Championship.
Early estimates suggest he could make his debut in four to six weeks.
Bove said: “I’m not scared because I think that my event happened at, we can say, a perfect age.
“I wasn’t too young to not understand the kind of problem and I wasn’t too old to have fear of going back.
“But I’m a very rational person. I heard from a lot of different doctors. We arrived to the conclusion that I’m in a good condition and I can play without problems.
“I have to monitor myself and that’s it.
“At the beginning it was tough for the family. It’s a big event, a public event, and it takes time to do all the exams because the heart has to recover.
“It took four months without doing anything. It was a difficult period but really challenging. It made me work a lot mentally more than physically.
“It’s more the second chance of life than football.”
During four seasons with Roma, he was on the bench when they beat Arne Slot’s Feyenoord in the 2022 Conference League Final under boss Jose Mourinho, who called Bove a “sick dog” for his habit of always hunting down the ball.
Everton, Liverpool, Bournemouth and Brentford all took an interest in Bove’s future.
But he preferred a move to Watford, eighth in the Championship and in the hunt for the playoffs, which has a strong Italian connection.
Though he is not a fan of rock legend Elton Jones’s music, he has been told the club’s honorary life president knows all the players – “so I’ve a little bit of pressure, I want to make him happy”.
Bove said: “I’m here because it’s a very big challenge for me. A very ambitious club with one main goal – to go back to the Premier League.
“I spoke with the director, the owner, and everything was perfect. Even talking about the structures, the medical staff, and that’s a very important part for me.
“In Italy now I cannot play because of these kinds of rules. But I’m very happy to be here and it’s not a second choice.
“I had a few offers but the thing is I want to play the more games I can. But I needed a place where I was really happy and comfortable to come back.”
Bove has an impressive command of English – both in terms of understanding questions and his own fluency – and that is due to other matters of the heart.
His girlfriend has family in Banbury, Oxfordshire, and learned the language to impress her family.
He laughed: “I have to improve. I took a few lessons. It’s because I have to speak with the parents of my girlfriend. So I have to learn.
“I learned English at school. My girlfriend was born here in England.”
Read the full article here