Why Safety Measures In Sport Are Necessary

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He had a promising career ahead of him and now he has nothing.

I had to do a post that had nothing to do with Corona lol.

A few days ago Abdelhak Nouri an Ajax footballer awoke from a coma that lasted two years, eight months and 19 days. Abdhelak had a heart attack at 19 years of age playing for Ajax against Werder Bremen in a friendly match in Austria.

The club doctor Don de Winter took most of the heat and was fired for the treatment Abdlhak received. Resuscitation should have happened sooner than it did plus a defibrillator should have been used immediately.Unfortunately Abdhelak had his brain starved of oxygen and is now brain damaged and who knows what quality of life he is now going to have.

The chances of a full recovery are not great but at least he is out of the coma. Hindsight is a wonderful thing and blaming the club doctor from deviating off safety guidelines is all great now. This doesn't help anyone especially Abdlhak and who knows if those measures would have made any difference. Firstly a 19 year old suffering a heart attack is very rare and not something you expect when running onto the field to assist a young athlete in prime physical shape.

I am all for safety measures in place and believe every player should have the basic knowledge of first aid. If one of the other players could have done something before the doctor has sprinted across the 50 meters or however far the distance was it would have helped. When I played rugby we all knew the basics like rolling a player over and making sure the tongue is not blocking the air passage. A heart attack would be different seeing a fellow player not breathing must be quite scary.

Tiote was not so lucky and collapsed and died at training in China.

There have been a few cases over the last few years where players have suffered heart attacks. Clubs have to check everything these days as the players are their investments and the reason why players are checked regularly for heart irregularities and family history of heart disease. I thought this was strange as this was one of the independent tests all players have to have when signing on with a new club.

You could understand if the managers would be the ones collapsing having heart attacks as they are under severe stress for most of the season.