Another Young Footballer Dies...

[Baddar]

Zambia's Chaswe Nsofwa has died in an Israeli hospital minutes after collapsing during a training session.

The 27-year-old was training with his Israeli second division side Hapoel Beersheba when the tragedy struck.

Rescue workers tried to restart his heart for several minutes on the field before taking him to Soroka Hospital in Beersheba.

Paramedic Carmel Cohen said that he rushed to the field when he received the emergency call.

"When we arrived we found the soccer player lying on the grass," he explained.

"We found his friends trying to help him.

"We gave him first aid, electric shocks and an external pacemaker, but despite all our efforts, he was declared dead at the hospital."

It was not known what caused the player's collapse.

Nsofwa was part of the Zambia squad at the 2002 African Cup of Nations in Mali and last year had helped the Chipolopolo win the Cosafa Cup, scoring one of the goals in the final 2-0 win over Angola. On Tuesday Spain and Sevilla's Antonio Puerta died three days after collapsing during a league game.

From BBC Sport

[TFA]

Man, I ain't really a big soccer fan but is that like the second in two days? I think the coaches should take in to effect the heat and everything like that.

[Katsuya]

Okay, so Ray Jones, Antonio Puerta, this guy, and very nearly Clive Clarke all within five days. This is getting far too freaky.

[Baddar]

I know. This is getting very weird to say the least.

[Adam]

What the hell is going on? I know there are THOUSANDS upon thousands of footballers around the world, but this is just getting weird now.

RIP Mr. Nsofwa.

[The Kraig]

What the fuck is going on. It's actually been three players in five days, two of them under 23 years old. And not even at obscure semi-pro or amateur clubs, fully professional and renowned clubs.

QPR in the English second tier, Sevilla in the Spanish top tier and now this in Israel's top tier. I hope this is where it ends.

Edited August 29, 2007 by The Kraig

[Katsuya]

Actually, they're Israel's second tier...

[The Kraig]

Actually, they're Israel's second tier...

[ONO]

Actually, they're Israel's second tier...

[Baddar]

Actually, they're Israel's second tier...

Doesn't even matter if they were in Israel's fourth tier.

Well yeah, the fact so many incidents are happening in such a short space of time is beyond me.

[Jeff Jeffries]

This problem expands past European Football, too. I've heard of several local high school boys stroking out on the Football (american) practice field lately and a couple of band students.

I had an old coach explain it to me as best he could and he says alot of it has to do with conditioning. When he was playing football in the 50s, they didn't get water breaks or anything, but they also didn't have stuff like air conditioning and gatorade to help hydrate them growing up. With the introduction of those and other innovations, certain conditions need to be made to ensure these athletes' safety.

[Katsuya]

...I wasn't being evil, I was just saying. It was in the article, I was just pointing that out. It's a tragedy, as I though I made clear earlier.

[ONO]

We've had it here too with different sports, young athletes suddenly collapsing on the field.