Fiorentina’s Edoardo Bove has become the latest in a series of supposedly fit and healthy young footballers to collapse dramatically on the pitch.
The midfielder, 22, fell to the ground and was taken off the field by ambulance during his team’s Serie A match against Inter Milan on Sunday.
In heartbreaking scenes, players from both sides formed a circle around Bove as medical staff tended to him before rushing him to hospital.
Fiorentina has issued a statement detailing that Bove is “currently under pharmacological sedation and hospitalized in intensive care.”
The club adds that “the first cardiological and neurological tests carried out have ruled out acute damage to the central nervous system and the cardiorespiratory system.”
As such, the reason for their collapse remains, at this time, unknown, and experts say that these cases require time and extensive experience to determine the cause.
But Bove is not the only footballer who has collapsed in such circumstances in recent years.
Uruguayan footballer Juan Izquierdo, 27, collapsed in August of this year and later tragically died in hospital.
Fiorentina’s Edoardo Bove has become the latest in a series of supposedly fit and healthy young footballers to collapse dramatically on the pitch. Bove pictured warming up before the game
In heartbreaking scenes, players from both sides formed a circle around Bove as medical staff tended to him before rushing him to hospital.
And Luton Town captain Tom Lockyer suffered a heart attack on the pitch last December and his heart stopped for two and a half minutes.
This all follows Danish footballer Christian Eriksen’s famous collapse during a Euro 2020 match.
Despite conspiracy claims to the contrary, experts have consistently told MailOnline that these events, although tragic and rare, are not increasing and recent clusters of cases are coincidences.
It was eventually revealed that Izquierdo’s death was the result of a viral infection that put additional pressure on his heart, causing it to beat at an irregular rhythm, medically called a 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 due to undetected ventricular fibrillation, another condition that causes a disturbance in heart rhythm.
Leading experts on heart health issues in young athletes have told MailOnline that there has been no increase in deaths or cases overall in recent years.
Anti-vaccine conspiracy theorists have been quick to highlight these collapses as “proof” that Covid shots have damaged young hearts, even though there is often no evidence that the athletes in question had received the vaccine.
Bove isn’t the only player who suffered a heartbreaking collapse while playing. Uruguayan footballer Juan Izquierdo, 27, collapsed in August this year and tragically died later in hospital.
Dr Raghav Bhatia, a researcher at the world-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 that “there is no evidence” that supports such claims.
“A clear distinction needs to be made between solid peer-reviewed medical literature and rumors or individual case reports, which are often found on social media and can often represent misinformation,” he said.
He added that these cases that occur are often due to undetected heart problems, such as congenital ones that have been present since birth but have not yet caused any problems.
While there are screening programs designed to detect these health problems for athletes, like any medical scan or test, they are not perfect and there is a chance that a small number of cases may slip through the cracks.
In the UK, the Football Association requires footballers to take mandatory tests at the age of 16, but later testing is only recommended.
Some cardiologists, speaking out in the wake of recent player collapses, have called for this to change with mandatory repeat testing as players reach their 20s and 30s.
Additional testing will not only help detect players with heart problems who initially slipped through the net, but will also help identify those who develop a concerning heart condition later in their career.
Professor Guido Pieles, who heads the Sports Cardiology Clinic at the Institute of Sport, Exercise and Health, and advocates for greater monitoring of athletes, previously said: “If a player is tested at the age of 16, we cannot guarantee that when I’m 29, everything is still normal.”
Tom Lockyer (left months after the event) suffered cardiac arrest during a Premier League match (right) which caused his heart to stop for two and a half minutes.
“Some diseases appear between the ages of 20 and 30, which is why we also recommend longitudinal screening.”
Football governing bodies in other countries have different standards when it comes to selection.
Previous research has also shown that athletes who play so-called “start-stop” or “stop and go” sports, including soccer, which are characterized 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 cause additional strain, exacerbating any heart problems a player may have.
Other cases of athletes collapsing on the field of play refer to specific cases of an injury called commotio cordis.
This is where the chest experiences a high-speed impact (usually a ball in a sporting context) of such severity that it disrupts the nerve signals that regulate the heartbeat.
Research has found that there has been no increase in sudden deaths among young athletes.
A study, published last year, that examined two decades of American college sports data, found that those deaths decreased by about 29 percent every five years.
Danish footballer Christian Eriksen suffered cardiac arrest at Euro 2020
Eriksen collapsed on the field in dramatic scenes in 2021. His collapse was later attributed to undetected ventricular fibrillation, another condition that causes a disturbance in heart rhythm.
Academics attributed the drop to more effective screening systems for heart conditions in young athletes over time, as well as wider access to emergency treatments such as on-site defibrillator kits.
Dr Bhatia said data from Britain suggested a similar lack of increase in sudden deaths.
‘YO“In our experience caring for young people, including athletes, from both a clinical and academic perspective, we have not seen an increase in young people’s deaths due to Covid or the vaccine,” he said.
Ge added that investigating cardiac deaths in young people takes time and extensive experience and people should avoid speculating about the causes.
“Often the televised nature of tragic events of this type has far-reaching consequences for the individual, their families and communities as a whole,” he said.
“Speculation is often a source of misinformation and can have unintended consequences.”
Professor Pieles has also stated that the recent clusters of collapse cases in the field are probably coincidences.
“At this point 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’s increasing especially in football.”