RIP Christian Benitez: The Issue at the Heart of Football

RIP Christian Benitez: The Issue at the Heart of Football

RIP Christian Benitez

The world of football was shaken yesterday as news broke of the shock passing of former Birmingham striker Christian 'Chucho' Benitez at the tender age of 27.

Benitez had recently signed a deal with Qatari side El Jaish SC and had just completed his  his début for the club when he 'was admitted to hospital with severe stomach pains'.

Soon after, he passed away, the latest in a long line of footballers that have died on the pitch due to heart failure.

Just this year, at least five other professional players have died whilst playing football and they've all suffered from either direct heart-attacks, or complications that arise from issues relating to the heart.

Take the sad case of 18 year old Yair Clavijo. The Peruvian was playing a reserve game for Sporting Cristal just eight days before Benitez's death, when he collapsed on the field and died of "cerebral edema, caused by an underlying heart condition".

The story becomes even sadder when you learn that the heart disease that affected the young player could have been detected by a simple electrocardiogram, which is "one of the most widely used tests in cardiology".

Cases like these happen more frequently than most football fans would imagine. For another example, take the case of former Croatia U-21 midfielder Alen Pamic, who died on the same day as Clavijo.

The 23 year old was playing in a small scale recreational game for MNK Maruzini, when he suddenly collapsed and died. The cause of death was a cardiac arrest.

The rigours of modern professional football mean that the slightest heart condition could be fatal and most players work so hard that they aren't even safe during training. For the last example, (remember these have all happened in the past two months, June/July 2013) we come to the case of Sekou Camara.

Camara was a Malian striker, who died of a heart attack whilst training with his teammates in Bandung, Indonesia. In a stark contrast to the other examples, he was aged 27 when he died, just like Christian Benitez.

Each of these deaths could have been prevented with proper medical testing and they show just how much of a walking miracle Fabrice Muamba actually is. The former England U-21 survived heart failure on the pitch and subsequently recovered, although he retired from football after listening to medical advice.

As football continues to grow around the world, yet more clubs, leagues and players are going to pop up across the globe. 

At Grassroots level, we cant expect clubs to vet every player and provide full medicals and heart checks, but at professional levels FIFA and other relevant bodies need to ensure that proper checks are done on players who may be at risk.

We can see that age isn't a factor and problems can arise with little to no warning, which must be scary for current players who haven't been checked out properly. Although some would argue that football has become overly commercialised, at the end of the day, football is light entertainment that is often attended by families and especially children, who shouldn't be subject to the trauma of witnessing one of their heroes pass away in front of them.

Other factors should be taken into account to see if there are other ways this worrying trend can be curbed. Those with a history of illness in their family should be checked straight away, games played at high altitudes should be given special attention as players could be more at risk and the temperature factor can affect players in more ways than simple fatigue.

For many players football is everything, but some are forced to pay the ultimate price for light entertainment. In an age of cheap, affordable medical care in most of the world, they really shouldn't have to.