Kota Bharu: Nigerian defender David Oniya collapsed on the pitch and died after playing just a few minutes of a local friendly in Malaysia on Saturday. 30 year old David Oniya, went down about three minutes into the game for T-Team and was pronounced dead at hospital around half-an-hour later, the club’s chief executive, Syahrizan Mohd Zain told The Star newspaper.
A club official said Oniya, who was in his first season with second-tier T-Team, he had barely touched the ball in the friendly with Super League side Kelantan before collapsing.
The club official said, “There was no hard running and it was a slow tempo match. It’s only a friendly game. The match was called off in the 60th minute when we received a call from the hospital that Oniya had died.”
Syahrizan also complained that the ambulance driver had been slow.
“He suffered a heart attack but it could have been a different story had the ambulance driver (been) alert. The driver was at the stands watching the game when Oniya suddenly collapsed and our defender was deprived of oxygen for several minutes.”
The centre back had played football for more than 10 years as a professional. Prior to his Malaysian stint, the Nigerian had also played in leagues in Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan.
Making a head way in sports has become increasingly demanding, sometimes athletes push their body beyond capacity over fear of losing out, leading to a conditions such as “exercise induced arthymogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy” netizen cardiologist. The most recent incident of athlete heart attack in this region (south Asia) is that of a Singaporean for national athlete who died about a week ago in a different circumstance.
The most prominent case was Cameroon midfielder Marc-Vivien Foe, who collapsed and died while playing a Confederations Cup semi-final against Colombia in Lyon in 2003.
- AFP
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