Tottenham Hotspur footballer Rodrigo Bentancur collapsed face down on the pitch just five minutes into a match against Liverpool this week.
The 27-year-old midfielder went for a header but appeared to instead fall awkwardly and was left face down and motionless on the pitch.
He has since updated fans from his hospital bed in an image smiling with his fiancée Melany La Banca with the caption ‘all is good’.
The reason for his collapse remain, at this stage, unknown. But what can cause a seemingly fit athlete to suddenly collapse on the pitch?
Bentancur’s incident follows numerous young footballers suddenly collapsing on the football pitch.
Juan Izquierdo, 27, died in August as a result of a viral infection putting extra strain on his heart, causing it to beat in an irregular rhythm, medically called cardiac arrhythmia.
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 trigger a heart attack.
Meanwhile Christian Eriksen, 32, collapsed in 2020 due to an undetected ventricular fibrillation, another condition that leads to heart rhythm disruption.
Medics provided treatment for nine minutes before he was stretchered off to applause from both sets of supporters
Bentancur had appeared to be unconscious on the pitch after his concerning fall
Research has shown athletes who play what are called ‘start-stop’ or ‘stop and go’ sports, including football, which are marked by bursts of demanding physical activity followed by relative inactivity, are more likely to suffer from cardiac events.
This is due to the repeated sudden demands placed on the heart which can lead to extra strain, exacerbating any heart issues a player may have.
Other cases of athletes collapsing on the pitch involve specific cases of an injury called commotio cordis.
This is where the chest suffers a high velocity impact — most often from a ball in a sport context — of such severity that it disrupts the nerve signals that regulate the beating of the heart.
However, there are many other possible reasons why an athlete may collapse suddenly.
These include being too hot, and not drinking or eating enough.
Dehydration causes less blood to travel around the body, leading to low blood pressure, dizziness and fainting, British Heart Foundation explains.
The charity adds that in response to this, the heart may start beating faster to help this blood move around the body, causing heart palpitations.
Bentancur has provided a health update from his hospital bed of him smiling with his fiancée Melany La Banca as he declared that he is ‘all good’
A lack of water can also cause the blood to thicken, which increases the risk of blood clots and heart attacks.
There are screening programs designed to detect heart issues for athletes, but like any medical scan or test, they are not perfect and there is still a change a case will slip through the net.
In the UK, the Football Association has mandatory checks carried out at the age of 16 for footballers, but later testing is only recommended.
Speaking in the wake of recent player collapses, some cardiologists have called for this to change, demanding mandatory repeat testing as players enter their 20s and 30s.
Extra screening will not only help catch any players with heart problems that initially slipped through the net, but will also help identify those who develop any heart conditions of concern later in their career.
Professor Guido Pieles, who leads the Sports Cardiology Clinic at the Institute of Sport, Exercise and Health, and advocates for more screening of athletes previously said: ‘If a player is screened at 16, we cannot give an assurance that when he is 29 everything is still normal.’
‘Some diseases come up in the late 20s or 30s that is why we recommend also longitudinal screening.’
