Ex-Italy under-21 footballer Piermario Morosini has died after a suspected cardiac arrest during a match this afternoon, say reports coming out of Italy.
In a sad echo of the events at White Hart Lane earlier this year, in which Bolton’s Fabrice Muamba suffered a cardiac arrest, Morosini fell to the ground in the 31st minute of Livorno’s Serie B match against Pescara.
According to eye-witnesses, Morosini started to stagger before collapsing, even trying to return to his feet. Then he collapsed again, this time face down and appeared to go into convulsion.
The referee’s assistant drew the referee’s attention and he stopped the game immediately. A defibrillator was brought on to the pitch and Morosini, 25, was then taken to hospital. The game was called off with other players in tears.
The Ansa news agency said Morosini had suffered a heart attack in the ambulance. He was taken to Pescara’s Santo Spirito hospital, where it is now been confirmed he has died.
“He suffered a cardiac arrest,” announced Edoardo De Blasio, a cardiologist at Pescara’s Santo Spirito hospital in Italy. “Unfortunately he was already dead when the ambulance arrived. He never regained consciousness.”
It has just been announced that all Italian football leagues this weekend will be suspended.
Italy hasn’t experienced such a tragedy since October 1977, when Perugia’s Renato Curi died during a Serie A game against Juventus.
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