3 deaths in 5 days Is there a relationship between the Corona vaccine and the death of football players?

Three times in the past five days, world football has been devastated by the death of players due to cardiac arrest. In a precedent, in terms of synchronicity, it draws attention to heart diseases that threaten the lives of those exercising this sport, and it also opens the doors of conspiracy theories linking what happened to the Covid-19 vaccine.

Football fans still remember the afternoon of June 12, when the match of the Danish team against his Finnish counterpart in the Euro 2020 championship reached the forty-second minute. He had a heart attack and the medical staff rushed to save him from an almost certain death.

These scenes, for those with strong memory, were not new. Returning to the Confederations Cup in 2003, the Cameroon national team match against Colombia witnessed a similar event, after which the Cameroonian player Marc-Vivien Foe breathed his last on the green rectangle.

It is therefore heart attacks that threaten the lives of football players without warning, and in the last five days have claimed the lives of three players. In a precedent that sheds light on the extent of heart health care in the world's most popular sport, and attention to ways to prevent it. On the other hand, it opens the door to conspiracy theories linking the proliferation of these incidents in the past year to the Covid-19 vaccine and the complications of the epidemic.

Three players died in five days

During the last five days, the world football stadiums witnessed the death of three players due to a heart attack. The first of them was the Croatian Marin Kacic, the 23-year-old defender of NK Nehaj Sinj club. He passed away three days after suffering a heart attack during training.

The Croatian club announced the death of its defender on Thursday, December 23, after three days he spent unconscious. Before his former colleagues mourned him by posting his pictures on their social media pages, accompanied by phrases such as "Rest in peace, Marine" and "You will always be in our hearts."

In a similar incident, the Omani Muscat club player, Makhlid Al-Raqadi, fell on the pitch after a severe heart attack, which he sustained during a warm-up session before his club's match against Al-Suwaiq in the sixth round of the local championship. And then the Oman News Agency said : "The death of the player, Khaled Al-Raqadi, after he was taken to the hospital, after he fell while warming up before the start of his team's match with Al-Suwaiq Club."

The Oman Football Association issued a statement offering its "condolences and sympathy to the family and board of directors of Muscat Club and all employees of the sports community, on the death of the late player, Khaled bin Hamad Al-Raqadi, God willing." A state of sadness prevailed in the Omani media, and many publications blamed and criticized the Oman Football Association for "not providing the necessary ambulances to rescue such cases," according to them.

Another victim in the football field, this time it was related to the player Sofiane Locar, who died during the match of his team Mouloudia Saida against the Islamic Union of Oran in the Algerian third division. "The player died at the Habib Bouakl stadium in the 25th minute of the match, after a sudden fall on the head after an air game with his goalkeeper," the Algerian Football Association said in a statement published on its official website.

Mouloudia Saida club director, Morsli El Arabi, revealed that "the late is qualified from the second amateur league with a medical file, and in the (Lasmo) meeting, everything was fine, before he fell alone on the field, without any friction with the opponent's players." Several media pages reported pictures of Mouloudia Saida players collapsing in the dressing room after hearing the news of the death of their colleague.

What is the secret of the proliferation of heart attacks in football players?

The coincidence of these three incidents during this short period, with what the year witnessed similar falls for players who suffered from heart attacks on the field, the most famous of whom are the Danish Christian Eriks and the “Sharif Tiaspol” striker Adama Traore, can give the impression of the frequent occurrence of these cases among football players.

An impression denied by medical statistical studies, as British research in this regard acknowledges that seven out of 100,000 players suffered heart attacks while playing in the English Premier League. Results that were commented by Professor of Cardiology, University of London, Sanjay Sharma, that "we must be aware of the fact that the death rates due to heart attacks in football players are higher than we thought in the past, but they remain rare."

As for the causes of these injuries, Dr. Amal Lewis, a cardiologist at the Canadian Specialist Hospital in Dubai, says, “The heart attacks are often caused by people who enjoy high fitness and follow a healthy and active lifestyle, due to physical exertion. With a certain amount of effort, and the athlete or athlete constantly stresses it, the chances of thickening of the heart muscle are higher, and therefore the risk of stroke.”

There are also genetic factors, such as abnormalities at the level of the heart muscle, that can lead to this happening. While this coincided at a certain time, it remains purely a fateful coincidence, according to specialists in the field. On the other hand, they stress the need to conduct periodic examinations of players to anticipate the occurrence of heart attacks, as well as equip the stadiums with means of resuscitation, especially the defibrillator, and the teams provide qualified medical staff to avoid the loss of players' lives in the event of their injury.