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

Football fan Susanna Lawson, 49, from Manchester was sitting on the row just behind Fernandes on their easyJet flight to Lisbon, Portugal and witnessed the moment the captain caught a man who appeared to have collapsed.

She said the midfielder 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 told the PA news agency.

“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, co-founder of a digital word-of-mouth app called Circle of Trust, headed to the Portuguese capital on Monday morning for a technology conference and was joined by other delegates from Manchester.

She 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.

“I think it was just, ‘oh my goodness, what are the chances of somebody being poorly right when the Man United captain is standing right in front of you?’,” she said.

“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, Lawson took a selfie with Fernandes and Manchester United team-mate Diogo Dalot, who was also on the plane, and personally praised the midfielder for helping the unwell passenger.

“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 explained.

“It’s just nice to be reminded that they (celebrities) are just normal people out there.”

She said she was “quite excited” when she spotted Fernandes boarding the plane, despite being a Manchester City supporter.

“The ridiculous thing is is we’re a blue family – we support Manchester City,” she said.