Barcelona striker Sergio Aguero has announced his retirement from football at the age of
33 due to a heart condition.
The Argentine has not played since the end of October when he was taken off during the
first half of Barca's draw with Alaves after experiencing chest pain.
Cardiovascular Issues in Football Aguero’s incident was not the first one.
We have witnessed similar incidents before.
Former Spanish captain and legendary goalkeeper Iker Casillas was taken to the hospital in
2019 after having a heart attack while training for his Portuguese club Porto.
English midfielder Fabrice Muamba nearly died after his heart stopped beating for 78 minutes
during an FA Cup match in 2012.
Eriksen’s Case Was An Anomaly The sudden collapse of Danish football star
Christian Eriksen during his country’s match against Finland at the Euro 2020 championships
earlier this year sent shockwaves across the stadium in Copenhagen and the world over.
Eriksen's comeback to professional football would be a tremendous achievement given that
he narrowly escaped death only a few months ago.
He might play in the English Premier League, which would examine any players with a history
of cardiac arrests on a case-by-case basis.
The German newspaper Berliner Zeitung put together a list of recent cases in Europe
it found 23 incidents of footballers, coaches or match officials collapsing with suspected
heart issues from July 11 to October 15.
That works out, on average, around one incident every four days.
One incident every four days!
That's bizarre!
Four incidents had resulted in deaths, including the tragedy of 17-year-old Dylan Rich, who
collapsed in an FA Youth Cup tie for the Nottinghamshire side West Bridgford Colts in September.
So why are footballers suffering cardiac problems more and more in recent times?
Why Do Athletes Suffer Cardiac Arrests?
According to experts, many professional sportsmen and football players have died as a result
of cardiac arrests.
Even if it is uncommon, young and fit athletes are not immune to heart problems, for a variety
of reasons.
Jack Goodman, professor of cardiovascular exercise physiology at the University of Toronto
has said, “These people can train and adapt and become extremely fit, extremely capable
athletes with tremendous heart function and general physiology.
But they are vulnerable at the right time with the right trigger to having this type
of an electrical dysfunction that causes a serious arrhythmia that could lead to an arrest
and a fatal outcome.”
Overplaying?
Overplaying, though it sounds pretty basic, can be hazardous for footballers.
Manchester City star Ilkay Gundogan opened the debate earlier this year on Champions
League reform by suggesting new measures were harmful to players.
The City midfielder wrote on Twitter: "With all the Super League stuff going on... can
we please also speak about the new Champions League format?
More and more games, is no one thinking about us players?
The new UCL format is just the lesser of the two evils in comparison to the Super League.”
Cardiac Screening Footballers and elite athletes should undergo
cardiac screening more regularly throughout their careers to give them the best possible
protection.
The cardiologist, who advises the FA, said: “The evidence says players aged 15 or 16
should be screened because the highest incidence of sudden cardiac arrest is 16-18, But I do
believe we need to do it more often.
Players in their twenties need to be screened.
Diseases can occur within the 20 years of a player's career.
There should be intermittent screening”
Sudden cardiac arrest can occur where a player has an underlying heart condition and while
most problems are picked up through screening, a small percentage may go undetected.
MISINFORMATION The German newspaper Berliner Zeitung has
also noted that “sudden cardiac death during exercise has ‘different triggers’”.
The incidents have been seized upon by conspiracy theorists who say the Covid-19 vaccine is
to blame.
But the mass hysteria is unfounded.
Dr Jonathan Drezner, from a group of doctors monitoring heart conditions among athletes
during the pandemic, told the ABC that linking the vaccine with deaths on the sporting field
was “misinformation” and there has “not been an increase in sudden cardiac arrest
or death in young athletes”.
So what do guys think?
Should this go under further investigation or are these cardiac problems normal and a
part of the modern game?
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