Nigeria’s top professional athlete, Kanu Nwankwo who first had an open-heart surgery in 1996 after a routine medical examination at Inter Milan revealed a heart valve defect,  has recounted how his wife Amara saved his life and then nursed him back to health.

According to him, they had just put their three children to bed, and retired to their own room. However, the Arsenal legend’s hammering heartbeat kept Amara awake.

She recalls: “His heartbeat sounded much louder than normal. I was listening to his chest and it sounded odd.”

Amara, 30, couldn’t shake the niggling feeling that was something wasn’t quite right and insisted her husband get it checked immediately.

Kanu, now 40, says: “She was saying I should go for a check-up so I took her advice.” And Amara was proved right because experts told him there was further damage to his heart and he urgently needed a second operation.

“It was the same faulty valve,” she says. “It was like a ticking time bomb. It’s just one of those things we were lucky to find out.” Not only did she save his life, Amara also nursed him back to health.

According to DailyMail, Kanu concluded by saying: “Now I know that being fit and strong doesn’t make your heart 100%.”