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Aston Villa play-off ­goalscorer Anwar El Ghazi has revealed how he made an emotional trip to visit stricken former Ajax team-mate Abdelhak Nouri after his Wembley heroics.

El Ghazi headed straight back to Holland after celebrating Villa’s return to the Premier League after their 2-1 ­victory over Derby at Wembley last month.

And the first thing the 24-year-old Dutch international did was call on Nouri, the 22-year-old midfielder who is still being treated at the ­Amsterdam University Hospital almost two years after suffering a cardiac arrest during a game.

El Ghazi, who paid tribute to Nouri by revealing a shirt ­emblazoned with his friend’s name and number on the ­Wembley pitch, said: “I gave my Villa shirt from the final to ­charity.

(Image: Getty)

“But the Nouri shirt, I will ­always keep. I think about my friend all the time – and I pray for him five times every single day.

“I visit him when I go back to ­Holland and it is very emotional every single time.

“I always speak to him. I somehow hope that he can hear my words.

“I have a good ­relationship with his family, especially his brothers, and it is still hard to believe what happened to my friend on that pitch.

“We all remember a video clip where he said that he wants to win the Champions League with Ajax.

“Every time Ajax got closer to the final last season, beating all these big teams, I got more and more emotional.

(Image: Getty Images Europe)

“I also got upset when his dad and his brothers were part of the celebrations when Ajax ­became champions of Holland on the last day of this season.”

Nouri has permanent brain damage after suffering a ­cardiac arrhythmia during a pre-season friendly against Werder Bremen in Austria.

He spent a year in a coma and is still ­unable to ­recognise members of his ­family.

Like Nouri, El Ghazi is of ­Moroccan descent – but they were both born and raised in Amsterdam.

And both had a burning ­ambition to play for Ajax. El Ghazi is still bitter about the way he was discarded by former Ajax coach Peter Bosz after becoming a regular in the team as a teenager.

He moved to French club Lille for £7million in ­January 2017 before joining Villa on a season-long loan last summer.

The Midlands club immediately triggered an option to buy the winger ­permanently for £14m after ­booking their ­return to the top flight.

(Image: Action Images via Reuters)

El Ghazi said: “Scoring at Wembley and bringing Premier League football back to the city of ­Birmingham is the most wonderful thing in my career. When I was watching Ajax in the ­Champions League last season, when they were beating teams like Real Madrid and Juventus , I was thinking: ‘I want to be on the pitch with the guys I left ­behind’.

“I felt that I belonged there, but my last period at the club was painful and when Bosz put me on the bench after playing 99 first-team matches, we clashed. But I’m happy to now be at Villa ­because ­English football suits me and the fans are so fanatic.

“I am a bit wary of some crazy people, like the fan who attacked my team-mate Jack Grealish in the derby against Birmingham.

“The atmosphere in the stadium was more fanatic than the famous derby between Ajax and Feyenoord.”