DAVID Ginola is "extremely lucky" to be alive following a quadruple heart bypass operation after collapsing while playing football.

Friends of the former Newcastle United winger who saw him take ill in the south of France on Thursday initially thought the 49-year-old was joking.

But once they realised he was serious, he was immediately given CPR on the pitch.

The emergency services arrived eight minutes later and he was shocked four times with a defibrillator to restore a regular heart beat.

He was airlifted to Monaco Cardio-Thoracic Centre, where he was operated on by Professor Gilles Dreyfus.

Speaking to local newspaper Var-Matin, Prof Dreyfus clarified that Ginola had not suffered a heart attack but said the coronary arteries supplying blood to the heart had been affected.

"He arrived in a catastrophic state," the surgeon said.

"He was unconscious and did not remember anything.

"But it is going well. I have been able to talk to him. He does not show any neurological after-effects.

"He did not have a heart attack but he had very complicated coronary lesions which required us to perform a quadruple bypass."

He described the procedure as "straightforward but difficult".

Prof Dreyfus, who described the procedure as "straightforward but difficult", later told the BBC that if Ginola had not received CPR when he did, he would have been brain dead. And he said the ambulance was only able to reach the player in time because one of the crew knew where the private football field was after seeing it that morning.

He said: "It was a sequence of events that at every stage went absolutely fine - that is why he is here today.

"Luckier you can't be. It's an unbelievable story."

Ginola appeared in good spirits following his operation. A tweet from his account read: "Hello world, never slept better. I'm fine, just need to rest a bit. Thank you so much all of you for your magnificent support."

Ginola, who had been attending a celebrity golf tournament in Mandelieu on the French Riviera, won 17 caps for France and also had spells at Tottenham Hotspur,Aston Villa and Everton before his retirement in 2002.