Sky Sport and Gazzetta Dello Sport report that the operation was carried out this morning at the Careggi hospital in Florence, where he has been since collapsing during Fiorentina’s Serie A fixture with Inter Milan on Dec 1.

The match was stopped and then called off while Bove was rushed to the intensive care unit, where serious damage to the 22-year-old’s central nervous and cardio-respiratory systems was quickly ruled out.

Bove has been awake and undergoing tests in hospital for just over a week and is reportedly set to be discharged in the coming days after his operation.

Contacted by AFP, Fiorentina refused to comment on the reports, but if confirmed the installation of a defibrillator would mean Bove’s football career in Italy is at risk due to stringent health regulations which govern sport in the country.

Christian Eriksen had to leave Inter Milan in 2021 in the wake of his cardiac arrest and collapse while playing for Denmark at that year’s European Championship.

Eriksen was banned from playing in Italian football after having an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator, or ICD, fitted but now plays for Manchester United and still represents his country.