Surreal and Sad

Saturday after watching Arsenal beat Citeh I watched the Sevilla-Getafe match, in which Getafe took a 1-0 lead in the first 5 minutes but then had not one but 2 dudes sent off in the first half. In the second half Sevilla came back and eventually won 4-1, but that's not what this is about.

Midway through the 1st half, a Sevilla defender, Antonio Puerta, collapsed under no contact as a goal kick was about to be taken. The Spanish TV cameras got a close up of his teammate and then trainer pulling his tounge out from down his throat- it was obvious that he was unconscious and choking on it. a few minutes later he got up and walked off on his own, and as scary as it was the match went on and he went I presume to the hospital.

Well apparently he had another collapse in the dressing room, was rushed to the hospital, and passed away this morning. It was revealed that in laymans terms he suffered a heart attack on the field, and then another series of heart attacks afterwards.

He was only 22 years old.

So surreal and sad. I'm sure there are videos of the on field collapse out there, but I don't feel right finding and posting it here. I can't explain why but I feel differently about this having seen it live then if I hadn't seen the match live- maybe because the images were pretty stark and scary.

Thoughts are with his family and Sevilla FC, who understandably have postponed tomorrow's Champions League qualifier and may or may not play their SuperCup match on Friday against AC Milan. Another sad reminder of how unimportant sports are, or as a friend of mine wisely said years ago, that "sports are the toy department of life".

*Update: Swindle has more specific medical info and the video if you choose to see it.