Saudi player Fahad Al-Muwallad seriously injured after falling from balcony

Former Saudi international Fahad Al-Muwallad has been hospitalized in intensive care in Dubai after falling from the balcony of his private residence in the Gulf emirate, Saudi and Emirati authorities said on Sunday. The 30-year-old striker, who participated in the 2018 World Cup after being briefly loaned to Spanish club Levante, has been playing for Al-Shabab in Riyadh since 2022. The Saudi consulate in Dubai said in a statement published on its X account on Saturday night that it had been informed of the accident at the player’s private residence in the city on Thursday afternoon, and said it was “following the investigation carried out by the police” of the emirate. The official Dubai media office said that Al-Muwallad was “in intensive care in one of Dubai’s hospitals” after falling from the balcony on the second floor of his house where he was spending a short vacation. Al-Shabab club said it had sent its chairman to Dubai to “assess the health” of its winger.

The Saudi newspaper Al-Madina spoke of “criminal suspicions” citing “well-informed sources”. Before joining the Al-Shabab club, Fahad Al-Muwallad played with Al-Ittihad Jeddah, where he scored 17 goals in 74 international matches. He was suspended twice for doping, once for a year in May 2019, then again between March 2022 and September 2023, due to a positive test for furosemide, a diuretic masking the presence of anabolic steroids, which is on the list of banned products by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). He had been excluded from the Saudi selection for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.