The Manchester United captain, Bruno Fernandes, has been praised for helping an unwell passenger on a plane.

Susanna Lawson from Manchester was sitting on the row just behind Fernandes on their easyJet flight to Lisbon and witnessed the moment the midfielder caught a man who appeared to have collapsed. She said Fernandes called for help and stayed with the man for a few minutes before air stewards attended to the passenger.

“At some point during the flight, Bruno got up and went to the back, presumably to the toilet. After a couple of minutes, we heard: ‘Can we get help? We need help. Can we get some assistance?’” Lawson said.

“We turned around and Bruno was there and a gentleman looked like he was passing out and Bruno had caught him. The other stewards went running up the plane to help and luckily there was a spare seat right at the back, so they all got the gentleman into the seat. Bruno stayed with him, for, I think – I lost track of time – five or 10 minutes.”

Lawson confirmed the unwell man was “absolutely fine”, managing to stand up and walk back through the plane, and she commended the midfielder for his composure during the incident. “What an absolutely lovely man. He did it and didn’t make a big deal out of it. [The air stewards] just called for help and help came.”

Shortly after landing in Portugal, Lawson met Fernandes and his Manchester United teammate Diogo Dalot, who was also on the plane, and thanked the player for helping the unwell passenger.

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“I basically said to Bruno: ‘What you did back there was really lovely, it was great that you were there to be able to help’,” she said. “The ridiculous thing is we’re a blue family – we support Manchester City.”