Fabrice Muamba has started speaking again, according to Curtis Codrington, a friend who has visited the player.
The Bolton Wanderers footballer has been in intensive care at Barts hospital since suffering cardiac arrest on Saturday night during a FA Cup match against Tottenham Hotspur.
"Fabrice is speaking and moving," the Press Association reported Codrington as saying, adding: "He has spoken minimal words in French and English."
Previously, Barts said Muamba was showing "small signs of improvement" in a statement released with Bolton that revealed his heart was beating without medication and there had been movement in his arms and legs.
However both parties stressed he remains "critically ill".
"His long-term prognosis will remain unclear for some time," the statement read. "He is still critically ill and will continue to be closely monitored and treated by staff in the London Chest Hospital's intensive care unit."
Today, a number of Premier League footballers visited the ex-Arsenal trainee. Chelsea defender Ashley Cole, QPR's Shaun Wright Phillips and Muamba's former team-mate at the Emirates, Johan Djourou, arrived at the hospital to offer their support.
Jermain Defoe, who was on the pitch at the time when Muamba fell, visited yesterday while Bolton chairman Phil Gartside also stopped by, as Muamba's family continue to urge fans to pray for the player.
Muamba's fiancee, Shauna, reached out to fans on Twitter:
Bolton manager Owen Coyle, who visited Muamba this morning, hailed the 23-year-old as a "natural fighter".
"Fabrice is a natural fighter and very fit," Coyle said. "We hope that can help him. Today we wait and hope for improvement."
Muamba's heart stopped beating independently for two hours after he fell to the ground in the 41st minute of the 17:30 match. The game was subsequently abandoned, with both sets of players and supporters evidently distressed.
Coyle, who arrived at Bolton from Burnley in January 2010, accompanied Muamba to the north London hospital, and visited him on Sunday as well as today.
She later added:
"It's more important than football when you're such a humble person like Fabrice," Coyle assured the waiting media. "It’s humbling to have this level of support. We’re hopeful of a positive outcome.
"We are a family club, and Fabrice is part of this family. When you look at what he has come through his life already he is a natural fighter," he added.
Muamba grew up in Kinshasa, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and witnessed the brutality of one of the bloodiest civil wars in history. He arrived in the UK when he was 11-years-old in December 1999.
Bolton were scheduled to play Aston Villa tomorrow night, but that match has been postponed after what happened to Muamba at White Hart Lane.
Club captain Kevin Davies stressed how unimportant football is to him and the club at this current time.
"Any of those questions are irrelevant at the minute," he said. "I have been speaking to the manager and I have travelled back with the chairman. He went back down to support Fabrice and his family.
"It was optional to come into training today and decisions will have to be made but my immediate thoughts are with Fabrice and his family.
"The club will take a stance on it in the next couple of days. But at the minute we want to just try and help Fabrice."
Updated: 18:48, 19 March to report Curtis Codrington comments