August 2007
Following the recent deaths of footballers at Walsall and Seville, and another near-fatal incident at Leicester, CRY Patron Andy Scott has called for the FA and PFA to introduce cardiac screening for all professional footballers. Andy Scott’s own playing career was brought to a premature end when he was diagnosed with Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy by CRY Consultant Cardiologist, Dr Sanjay Sharma.
Scott says, “If all the players were looked at by the proper people and there was proper screening done, all these people would still be alive or at least have the chance to be alive because it would be found out.”
“The medicals are nowhere near stringent enough. The fact of the matter is that everyone should be tested. How many times are people going to die? Is it going to take a Wayne Rooney or David Beckham to keel over before anyone sits up and takes notice? Its getting ridiculous now.”
“There is clearly no reason why a young person should die when they are in the prime of their career and fitness. Its complete ignorance that this has not been taken further. This is an ideal opportunity now to make it compulsory for all players to be screened.”
I think it should be an FA initiative, backed by the PFA. There are mobile screening units who go around and can identify imperfections in the heart that could indicate sudden death syndrome. It needs a sweep now of all the players that are under contract. It would only take 10 minutes to check a player.”
