"This isn’t merely a performance: it is to some degree an act of communion. There may be a barrier between us and them, but it’s semi-porous. And it drops completely, if temporarily, at certain points: when your team has scored, or because of one of those moments of indefinable beauty that seem to be guided by some unconscious force, and thus belong not just to their creators, but to all of us."

Fredorrarci on Bolton’s Fabrice Muamba, who is fighting for his life after suffering cardiac arrest during an FA Cup match at Tottenham, and the ways in which sports and “the sporting family” have contributed to the dignity with which Muamba lives.