Uruguayan footballer Juan Izquierdo dies at the age of 27 after collapsing during a match

The 27-year-old Uruguayan football player Juan Izquierdo has died five days after collapsing during a Copa Libertadores match in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Uruguayan soccer player Juan Izquierdo, 27, has died five days after collapsing during a Copa Libertadores match in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Sky News reported.

Izquierdo, who played for Club Nacional, suffered a cardiac arrest during Thursday’s match. The club announced his death on social media platform X, expressing sadness over the “irreplaceable loss.”

“It is with deep pain and shock in our hearts that Club Nacional de Football announces the death of our beloved player Juan Izquierdo,” the club wrote.

He died on Tuesday at the Albert Einstein Hospital in Sao Paulo, where doctors diagnosed a “cardiac arrest associated with cardiac arrhythmia.” Izquierdo was in the neurological intensive care unit and was connected to a ventilator due to “progression of his brain damage and an increase in intracranial pressure.”

Izquierdo was in his second spell at Nacional and had played a key role in securing the club’s first league title in over a century in 2023.

Alejandro Dominguez, president of South American football’s confederation CONMEBOL, said the football community across the continent was in mourning. São Paulo, Izquierdo’s opponents in the match, also expressed their grief on social media, calling it a “sad day for football.”

News.Az