In September, Hinckley United's Matt Gadsby collapsed unchallenged whilst playing against Harrogate Town in the Nationwide Conference North. Despite paramedics trying to resuscitate him for over an hour, the 27-year-old didn't respond to treatment and died. The defender's death shocked the sport and reminded everyone that football is just a game. The incident also evoked memories of previous tragedies on the pitch.
Three years ago, fans watched in horror as Cameroon international Marc-Vivien Foe collapsed and died during alive televised match against Columbia in the 2003 Confederations Cup. The former Manchester City and West Ham midfielder was only 28, yet Foe suffered from a rare heart condition called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM).
The condition restricts the efficient pumping of blood around the body due to a thickening of the heart muscle.
"It is the most common cause of sudden cardiac death in athletes," says cardiologist Dr Sanjay Sharma.
"It's been identified in many sports including rowing, running and cycling, but most reported deaths in the UK have been in footballers."
The condition first came to prominence in 1992, when Wales manager Terry Yorath's son Daniel died while playing football in the garden. Daniel had just been signed, aged 15, by Terry's former club, Leeds United.
HCM is usually hereditary and affects one in 500 people, but in most cases is only detected after death. Former Leyton Orient striker Andy Scott was one of the fortunate minority to be diagnosed before it was too late. In March last year, Scott was playing against Cheltenham Town when he began to feel unusually tired.
"Twenty minutes into the game I was struggling to breathe and my legs felt really heavy," he explains, "so I came off and got seen by the doctor."
Scott remembers the moment he was told he would have to end his 13-year career.
"the specialist looked at the test results and just said: "You're going to have to hang your boots up or else you could die." I'd been playing for so long and everything had been fine, I'd just assumed I'd be back, but it wasn't to be."
Now working as youth-team coach at Orient, Scott recognises how fortunate he was and campaigns for better cardiac screening of players with the charity Cardiac Risk in the Young.
"The FA introduced a programme about 10 years ago where every apprentice is tested when they sign for a professional club," says Scott, "but there are older players, like me, who missed out on that and have never been screened."
In Italy, all professional athletes are required to produce an annual certificate of fitness based on a physical examination and an electrocardiogram (ECG), which can identify heart conditions like HCM.
"I don't know why it can't be the same over here," says Scott.
"I wasn't even tested when I was transferred. I moved four times in my career and had four medicals but didn't once have an ECG, which would have diagnosed my condition."
The FA's cardiological screening programme of youth players is jointly funded by the PFA ;and includes an ECG test. John Bramhall, assistant chief executive of the PFA. believes the system works.
"It's already identified one or two youngsters who had the condition," he says, "and we will get to the point son where the majority of players have been screened."
Until that time comes, it's possible that any number of players over the age of 26 will not have been tested for this life-threatening condition. Players like Matt Gadsby, who started as a trainee at Walsalll, but signed professionally before the FA's testing programme was introduced.
"All the players at the very top have probably been screened, says Scott," "so it's the lower division and non-league players that suffer."
The FA and PFA agree that testing every single player is not financially viable, but n an era of multi-million pound transfer fees and wages, it seems hard to believe that an ECG test costing just £34 is too expensive.
"Getting every player tested is a small price to pay," says Scott, "especially if it's the only way we can stop people dying."
