Former Pitt Basketball Player Corey Manigault Brutally Assaulted In Europe

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- A former Pitt basketball player was brutally attacked while celebrating a win after a game in Europe.

Corey Manigault was living his dream of playing professional basketball. He left the University of Pittsburgh after the 2017 season for the University of New Mexico and then moved to play professional ball in Cyprus.

That's where the 23-year-old, who is described by former coaches as a gentle giant, was attacked outside a nightclub while he and his teammates celebrated a win, according to our CBS affiliate station WUSA TV in Washington, D.C.

"When I got there, I was really not able to talk to him because he was not alert, he was intubated and sedated," Manigault's mother Sothia Green told WUSA.

She received the call in the middle of the night telling her that her son sustained multiple injuries, including a brain hemorrhage and hematoma.

Manigault was in an intensive care unit in Cyprus for 11 days. His mom told WUSA he's recently been moved to the neurology unit and can speak again.

"I don't know what he was hit with. I don't know if it was a pipe, if it was a shoe, if it was a foot, if it was constant stomping on his head," Green said.

Manigault's mom is now trying to get her son transferred home to the states to continue receiving medical care. She said five people were initially arrested for his attack and then released.

She said her son isn't accused of wrongdoing, but he is not being treated correctly.

"They have him restrained to the bed," Green told WUSA. "Culturally, this is totally different, and I have received limited support."

Manigault's mom said she's reached out to the U.S. Embassy, as well as the team he plays for to help bring her son home. But so far, she can't get Manigault out of Cyprus to be evaluated by doctors in their home state of Virginia.