Fiorentina’s Edoardo Bove has become the latest in a string of young and supposedly fit and healthy footballers to dramatically collapse on pitch.
The midfielder, 22, fell to the ground and was rushed off the pitch via ambulance during his side’s Serie A match against Inter Milan on Sunday.
In harrowing scenes players from both sides formed a ring around Bove as medical staff tended to him before they rapidly transported him to hospital.
Fiorentina have released a statement detailing how Bove is ‘currently under pharmacological sedation and hospitalised in intensive care’.
The club went on to say, ‘the first cardiological and neurological tests carried out have excluded acute damage to the central nervous system and the cardio-respiratory system’.
As such the reason for his collapse remain, at this stage, unknown, with experts saying such cases take time and extensive expertise to determine the cause.
But Bove not the only footballer to collapse in such circumstances in recent years.
Uruguayan footballer Juan Izquierdo, 27, collapsed in August of this year tragically dying later in hospital.
Fiorentina’s Edoardo Bove has become the latest in a string of young and supposedly fit and healthy footballers to dramatically collapse on pitch. Bove pictured warming up before the game
In harrowing scenes players from both sides formed a ring around Bove as medical staff tended to him before they rapidly transported him to hospital.
And Luton Town captain Tom Lockyer suffered an on-pitch heart attack last December with his heart stopping for two-and-a-half minutes.
All of this follows Danish footballer Christian Eriksen famous collapse during a Euro 2020 match.
Despite conspiracy claims to the contrary, experts have consistently told MailOnline these events, while tragic and rare, are not on the rise and recent clusters of cases are coincidental.
Izquierdo’s death was eventually revealed to be the result of a viral infection putting extra strain on his heart, causing it to beat in an irregular rhythm, medically called cardiac arrhythmia.
Lockyer’s collapse was linked to atrial fibrillation — a health condition that causes the heart to beat irregularly and abnormally faster and can trigger a heart attack.
Meanwhile Eriksen’s collapse was pinned on an undetected ventricular fibrillation, another condition that leads to heart rhythm disruption.
Renowned experts in cardiac health issues in young athletes have told MailOnline there has been no rise in deaths or in fact cases overall, in recent years.
Anti-vax conspiracy theorists have been quick to highlight such collapses as ‘proof’ Covid jabs have damaged young people’s hearts, despite often there no evidence the athletes in question had even had the vaccine.
Bove isn’t the only player to suffer a harrowing collapse while playing. Uruguayan footballer Juan Izquierdo, 27, collapsed in August of this year tragically dying later in hospital
Dr Raghav Bhatia, research fellow at the globally respected cardiovascular clinical academic group at St George’s University of London — one of the world’s most renowned sites in this specialist branch of cardiology — previously told this website there’s ‘no evidence’ that supports such claims.
‘A clear distinction needs to be made between peer-reviewed robust medical literature and hear-say or individual case-reports, which are often found on social media and may often represent misinformation,’ he said.
He added that such cases that do occur are often down to undetected cardiac problems, such as congenital ones that have been present since birth but not yet caused any problems.
While screening programs designed to detect such health issues exist for athletes, like any medical scan or test they aren’t perfect and there are a chance a small number of cases that slip through.
In the UK, the Football Association has mandatory checks carried out at the age of 16 for footballers, but later testing is only recommended.
Some cardiologists, speaking in the wake of recent player collapses, have called for this to change with 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.’
Tom Lockyer (left months after the event) suffered a cardiac arrest during a Premier League game (right) which saw his heart stop for two-and-a-half minutes
‘Some diseases come up in the late 20s or 30s that is why we recommend also longitudinal screening.’
Football governing bodies in other countries have different standards when it comes to screening.
Previous research has also 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 a ball in a sport context — of such severity that it disrupts the nerve signals that regulate the beating of the heart.
Research has found there hasn’t been a spike in sudden deaths among young athletes.
One study, published last year, examining two decades of data from US college sports, found such deaths plunged by about 29 per cent every five years.
Danish soccer player Christian Eriksen suffered a cardiac arrest at Euro 2020
Eriksen collapsed on the pitch in dramatic scenes in 2021. His collapse was later pinned on an undetected ventricular fibrillation, another condition that leads to heart rhythm disruption
Academics credited the drop to more effective screening systems for heart conditions in young athletes over time, as well as broader access to emergency treatment like on-site defibrillator kits.
Dr Bhatia said data from Britain suggested a similar lack of surge in sudden deaths.
‘In our experience of looking after young individuals including athletes, both from a clinical and academic perspective, we have not seen an increment in young deaths due to Covid or the vaccine,’ he said.
Ge added that investigating cardiac deaths in young people takes both time and extensive expertise and people should avoid speculating on causes.
‘Often the televised nature of such tragic events has far reaching consequences for the individual, their families and communities as a whole,’ he said.
‘Speculation is often a source of disinformation and may lead to unintended consequences.’
Professor Pieles has also stated that recent clusters of cases of on-pitch collapses are likely coincidences.
‘At present I would say this is still a coincidence,’ he said.
‘I don’t think we can say this is suddenly increasing, I don’t think it is increasing particularly in football.’
