If you follow football closely, you would notice recently that Fabrice Muamba, an Zairian born English midfielder collapsed during a Premier League between his club Bolton Wanderers and Tottenham Hotspurs at White Hart Lane. Later then, the match postponed as he was brought to London Chest Hospital where until a few days his condition declared as critical and fighting for his life.
A few years back, several footballers also suffered a heart attack during a football match. Law Adam of the East Indies (now Indonesia), Renato Curi of Italy, Co Prins of the Netherlands, Samuel Okwaraji of Nigeria, Hedi Berkhissa of Tunisia, Marc-Vivien Foe of Cameroon, Catalin Hildan of Romania, Eri Irianto of Indonesia, Serhiy Perkhun of Ukraine, Miklos "Miki" Feher of Hungary, Mohammed Abdelwahab of Egypt, Antonio Puerta of Spain, Naoki Matsuda of Japan to name some.
Adam started his football career for HVV Den Haag in the Netherlands. At the age of 19, he started his study in Zürich, where he played for Grasshopper-Club Zürich.
In the spring of 1933, Adam returned to HVV Den Haag, but heart problems forced him to end his career a few months later, at the age of 24. He died in 1941, at the age of 32, during a friendly match between football clubs Thor and Anasher in Surabaya in the Dutch East Indies. Adam had scored two goals and given three assists during the match, and left the pitch in the eighth minute of the second half, with his hand on his heart. Referee W.A. Lambeck wrote about the death of Adam in magazine De Scheidsrechter. He recalled asking Adam if it was serious, to which Adam had replied: "No, but my heart is playing up again and they've got a nice lead, so I can get dressed now." Lambeck continued: "When I entered the dressing room after the final whistle, Adam was on the massage table, all blue. The doctor and the heart specialist, who were immediately summoned, tried to revive the spirits by giving him injections in the heart area. Half an hour later, they could only establish death."
Renato Curi was born in Montefiore dell'Aso, Province of Ascoli Piceno in 1953. He started his professional career in 1969 with then-amateur club Giulianova, helping his side to win promotion to Serie C. He left Giulianova in 1973 for Como, and Serie B club Perugia one year later, helping his side, coached by Ilario Castagner, to win a historical first promotion ever to Serie A, and being a grifoni mainstay in the next years. Notably, his impressive performances proved to be instrumental for ensuring Perugia a historical sixth place in their 1976-77 Serie A campaign, and newspapers started rumours about a possible call-up of him for the Italy national football team. However, this never happened, as Renato Curi suddenly died on 30 October 1977 during a home match against Juventus, five minutes after the beginning of the second half, due to a myocardial infarction.
Samuel Okwaraji was a professional footballer who played internationally for Nigeria. He made the Green Eagles squad in 1988 and at that year's African Nations Cup he scored one of the fastest goals in the history of the championship against the Indomitable Lions of Cameroon. He played along until the final match, where the Eagles lost to their perennial rivals Cameroon by a lone goal.
Okwaraji collapsed ten minutes from the end of a World Cup Qualifier against Angola in Lagos and died from congestive heart failure. An autopsy showed that the 25-year-old had an enlarged heart and high blood pressure.
In June 2003, Foé died whilst on the pitch. He was part of the Cameroon squad for the FIFA Confederations Cup, a tournament played between continental champions. He played in wins against Brazil and Turkey, and was rested for the match against the United States, with Cameroon having already qualified. On 26 June 2003, Cameroon faced Colombia in the semi-final, held at the Stade de Gerland in Lyon, France. In the 72nd minute of the match Foé collapsed in the centre circle, with no other players near him. After attempts to resuscitate him on the pitch, he was stretchered off the field, where he received mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and oxygen. Medics spent 45 minutes attempting to restart his heart, and although he was still alive upon arrival at the stadium's medical centre he died shortly afterwards, in spite of the efforts to save his life. A first autopsy did not determine an exact cause of death, but a second autopsy concluded that Foé's death was heart-related as it discovered evidence of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a hereditary condition known to increase the risk of sudden death during physical exercise.
On 25 January 2004, Benfica travelled to Guimarães to play against Vitória de Guimarães. The game was being broadcast live on television, and Benfica were leading 1–0. Fehér had just come on as a substitute, and assisted another player brought from the bench, Fernando Aguiar, for the match's only goal, but received a yellow card in injury time and suddenly bent forward, seemingly in pain. He then fell backwards to the ground. Members of both teams rushed immediately to aid Fehér before medical personnel arrived on the pitch. CPR was performed as match participants looked on in visible distress. An ambulance arrived on the pitch and Fehér was rushed to the hospital. His condition was covered by the Portuguese media throughout the day. However, before midnight, his death was confirmed, the cause of death being cardiac arrhythmia, brought on by Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.
Naoki Matsuda was a Japanese footballer who played as a central defender. On 2 August, he collapsed during training due to a cardiac arrest after finishing a 15-minute warmup run, and doctors diagnosed his condition as "extremely severe". Two days later, he died at the age of 34.
Jose Mourinho, -the Chosen One- stated that the medics on field are as important as the game itself. They could give the first aid treatment for injured players before later in-depth diagnosis/treatment conduct at proper hospital.
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