Petrov's leukemia was discovered due to Muamba's cardiac arrest

London, Apr 3(ANI): Aston Villa captain Stiliyan Petrov's leukemia was discovered only after club's players underwent heart tests, in the aftermath of the cardiac arrest, which Bolton Wanderers' Fabrice Muamba endured on the pitch, his teammate Carlos Cuellar reveals.

"Last Tuesday, after what happened to Muamba, experts came to our training ground to do tests on us and examine our hearts. Two days later, we received the results and they communicated to Stan his symptoms of cancer," The Sun quoted Cuellar, as saying.

"They wanted him to go to hospital for more tests to confirm the original diagnosis. At the beginning they didn't even tell him the truth directly and he didn't want to scare us either, with a game against Chelsea so close on Saturday," he added.They had told him 'Yes it could be cancer but we need to do more tests'. So he didn't tell anyone but it's true his closest friends knew there was this possibility that it could be cancer," he said.

Petrov informed the whole of the Villa team once the news was confirmed on Friday, and Cuellar said no one in the team actually expected it, and it took them by a shock.

"No one expected it, it caught us by surprise and left us in shock. Last week we were still affected by the situation of Fabrice Muamba - it affected us mentally and psychologically," Cuellar said.

"So imagine if it is one of your intimate friends, a comrade with whom you've shared a dressing room for four years," he added.My team-mates and I are deeply affected and very emotional but Stiliyan is the first to give us strength, trying to lift us so that we win as many games and points as we can. It's the only thing he asked of us," he said. (ANI)