Pablo Marí, the Spanish soccer player who was wounded in a knife attack at a shopping centre, called himself “lucky” to survive and was being treated on Friday following injuries to his back and mouth.

Five people were stabbed on Thursday and one was killed after a man grabbed a knife from a supermarket shelf, authorities said.

Police arrested a 46-year-old Italian man at the shopping center in Assago, a suburb of Milan.

The 29-year-old Marí, who plays for Serie A club Monza on loan from Arsenal, does not have life-threatening injuries but was still receiving medical attention at the Niguarda hospital in Milan.

“He told me he had ‘suerte’ (luck), because, ‘today I saw someone else die,’” Monza CEO Adriano Galliani said after visiting Marí at the hospital late on Thursday.

“He had his child in a cart and his wife next to him. ... He was probably saved by his height,” Galliani said of the 1.93m Marí. “He was hit in the back and then he saw this delinquent stab someone in the throat.”

Massimo Tarantino, a former soccer player for Napoli and Inter Milan, was involved in stopping the assailant. “He was just screaming,” Tarantino told reporters. “I didn’t do anything. I’m not a hero.”

Galliani said Marí also had injuries to his mouth, possibly from gritting his teeth during the attack.

“He had two stitches applied to his lip and injuries to his back, which fortunately did not affect any organs,” Galliani said, adding that Marí was “lucid.”

Marí’s wife was questioned by police as a witness to the attack, Galliani said.

Marí, a centre-back, has played in eight of Monza’s 11 Italian league games this season and scored the second goal in a 2-0 win over Spezia this month. He spent the second half of last season on loan with Udinese, another Italian club.

Monza, which is owned by former Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi, hosts Bologna on Monday in their next match. The team is playing its debut season in the top division.

“Pablo is a great kid,” Galliani said. “He had the strength to joke around, telling me that on Monday he’ll be on the field. I brought him well wishes from president Berlusconi and all of his teammates.”

A supermarket employee died en route to the hospital, according to the news agency ANSA, which said three other victims were in serious condition. Another person was treated for shock, police said.

Monza coach Raffaele Palladino also visited Marí.

The motive for the attacks was unknown, but police said the man showed signs of being psychologically unstable. There were no elements to suggest terrorism.