Tottenham Hotspur footballer Rodrigo Bentancur fell face down on the pitch just five minutes into a match against Liverpool this week.
The 27-year-old midfielder headed but appeared to fall awkwardly and was left face down and motionless on the pitch.
He has since updated fans from his hospital bed on an image smiling with his fiancée Melany La Banca with the caption “all is well.”
The reason for its collapse remains unknown at this stage. But what can cause a seemingly fit athlete to suddenly collapse on the field?
Bentancur’s incident follows the sudden collapse of numerous young footballers on the football field.
Juan Izquierdo, 27, died in August due to a viral infection that put extra strain on his heart, causing it to beat in an irregular rhythm, medically known as arrhythmias.
Tom Lockyer, 30, collapsed in February last year due to atrial fibrillation – a health condition that causes the heart to beat irregularly and abnormally faster and can cause a heart attack.
Meanwhile, Christian Eriksen, 32, collapsed in 2020 due to undetected ventricular fibrillation, another condition that leads to disruption of the heart rhythm.
Medics treated him for nine minutes, after which he was carried away to applause from both groups of supporters
Bentancur appeared to be unconscious on the pitch after his worrying fall
Research has found that athletes who play so-called ‘start-stop’ or ‘stop-and-go’ sports, including football, which are characterized by bursts of demanding physical activity followed by relative inactivity, are more likely to develop heart problems.
This is due to the repeated sudden demands placed on the heart, which can lead to additional strain, exacerbating any heart problems a player may have.
Other cases of athletes collapsing on the field involve specific cases of an injury called commotio cordis.
This is where the chest experiences a high-velocity impact – usually from a ball in a sporting context – that is so severe that it disrupts the nerve signals that regulate the heart rate.
However, there are many more possible reasons why an athlete may suddenly collapse.
These include being too hot and not drinking or eating enough.
Dehydration causes less blood to flow through the body, leading to low blood pressure, dizziness and fainting, explains the British Heart Foundation.
The charity adds that in response, the heart may beat faster to move this blood through the body, causing palpitations.
Bentancur has given a health update from his hospital bed in which he laughs with his fiancée Melany La Banca while declaring that he is doing well
A lack of water can also cause the blood to thicken, increasing the risk of blood clots and heart attacks.
There are screening programs designed to detect heart problems in athletes, but like any medical scan or test these are not perfect and there is still a chance that a case will slip through the net.
In Britain, the Football Association has mandatory tests carried out at the age of 16 for footballers, but later tests are only recommended.
In the wake of recent player collapses, some cardiologists have called for this to change and require mandatory repeat testing as players reach their 20s and 30s.
Additional screening will not only help identify players with heart problems that may have initially slipped through the cracks, but will also help identify players who develop worrisome heart conditions later in their careers.
Professor Guido Pieles, head of the Sports Cardiology Clinic at the Institute for Sport, Exercise and Health, who advocates more screening of athletes, previously said: ‘If a player is screened at the age of 16, we cannot guarantee that if he 29 is everything is still normal.’
‘Some diseases come to light in the late twenties or thirties, which is why we also recommend longitudinal screening.’