Why are footballers dying of heart problems?

[Memphis]

Granted not the most pleasant of threads, but there was the terrible story yesterday of the 7 year old boy who collapsed during a game and later died.

Boy, 7, collapses and dies while playing football at school | Mail Online

RIP little man.

Theres no suggestion that it was anything to do with his heart but it reignited the subject at work today about footballers who are collapsing and in some cases dying.

Ive had a look back as far as Marc Vivien Foe (purely because thats the first collapse of this kind I can remember)

Since then there have been 30 deaths in football, 24 of them have been due to heart attack or cardiac arrest. Of the other 6 there were 3 due to collisions (head trauma) and 3 I couldnt find an answer on, based on the few of the 24 that I had to look up I would wager that the 3 outstanding were due to heart problems also.

My first thought when I looked at that was that it looks about right, after all, if a footballer dies what else is it going to be down to, a torn hamstring? They are either going to get booted in the head or its going to be heart related.

Its still shocking statistics though, especially when you consider that between 1889 - 1973 only 1 death that I can find was heart related.

So why are modern footballers collapsing and dying of heart related problems? They should be fitter and stronger than ever right? Whichever way you slice it this is a modern game phenomenon, I dont ever recall (before Foe) hearing of a footballer dying in action, if anything they should have been dropping like flies in the 70's - 90's when they were living it large.

Discuss.

[0james0]

I think people die in all sports all the time, not just football. Rugby, basketball and so on, bet there are an equal amount of deaths in those sports too.

Football has just been a little more publicised recently.

[Memphis]

Sure mate, it actually makes for shocking reading when you look up who dies doing what. Last week when the two horses got put down during and after the grand national there was the big fuss about how dangerous it is and the papers wheeled out the list of sports and who's dying doing what. you wont be surprised to know that boxing wasnt in the list of dangerous sports.

The thing is though, footballers have been dying since day dot, of course they have, but its a stone cold fact that more of them are dying for the same reason the closer we get to the present day and that strikes me as backwards, as I said they should have been dropping dead 20 years ago left right and centre given the lifestyle, these days they should be healthier than ever right?

[AdamGB]

[Master]

Coincidence and maybe better understanding of the heart so they can pick up things like heart murmurs.

[Gandalf]

I think Adam might have a point. It's no secret that some players are no angel when not playing. Coke and football are probably a nasty combination. Football used to be a working mans game and in the long ago olden days you didn't have the party rich lifestyle that seems to be all the vogue these days. Also in a game, the heart is the most likely of all things to give out and kill you. It's instant and boom it's got you. It's still quite rare considering the numbers of people that play football though. It's not as though it is a serious problem given the numbers suggested.

[Andre]

I imagine it would be just as much the aortic root valve or an aorta wall rupture more than a straight attack wouldn't it?