By Ignatius Igwe

Uruguayan footballer Juan Izquierdo of the Nacional club died in Brazil Tuesday, five days after collapsing from a heart attack during a match against Sao Paolo, his team announced late Tuesday.

The 27-year-old collapsed in the 84th minute of a match for a place in the quarterfinals of the Copa Libertadores — the most prestigious club tournament in Latin America.

He was taken by ambulance to the Albert Einstein Hospital, where physicians said he suffered “cardiac arrest of undetermined onset, secondary to an arrhythmia.”

Izquierdo, who was sedated and on a ventilator, later suffered “a progression of brain involvement and an increase in intracranial pressure,” the hospital said.

“With the deepest pain and shock in our hearts, the Club Nacional de Football announces the death of our beloved player Juan Izquierdo,” Nacional wrote on the social network X, in a message accompanied by a black and white photograph of the athlete.

Izquierdo’s wife Selena gave birth to his second child a week ago.

On Monday it emerged that the player had been diagnosed with “a small arrhythmia” a decade ago during routine check-ups of youth teams, according to the director of the National Sports Secretariat, Sebastian Bauza.

Club president Alejandro Balbi said Izquierdo “had never shown any cardiac episode” during examinations at the club, which he joined in January this year.

Izquierdo was born in Montevideo in 1991 and began his career in 2017, playing in several first-division Uruguayan clubs. He also played for Atletico San Luis in Mexico.

AFP

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