Africa beset by on-pitch deaths in recent years

CAPE TOWN - The sudden death of Cote d'Ivoire midfielder Cheik Tiote on Monday increased the number of high-profile African soccer players who have collapsed and died - almost all of them from a form of cardiac arrest.

There has been no confirmation of the cause of the former Newcastle United player's fatal collapse while training with his club Beijing Enterprises, which plays in China's second tier. However, the circumstances are similar to those in which many other players have died.

Samuel Okwaraji was the first major casualty in the series of on-field African deaths, collapsing while playing for Nigeria in a World Cup qualifier against Angola in Lagos in 1989.

An autopsy showed the 25-year-old, who was on the books of Stuttgart in Germany, suffered congestive heart failure. Okwaraji had an enlarged heart and high blood pressure.

His death left the continent shocked but there was a much wider audience in France in 2003 when Cameroon midfielder Marc-Vivien Foe fell in the center circle near the end of Cameroon's Confederations Cup semi-final with Colombia in Lyon.

Medics spent 45 minutes trying to restart Foe's heart before he was pronounced dead. His autopsy found the 28-year-old Lyon player suffered from hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a hereditary condition that increases the risk of collapse during exercise.

An award handed to the best African player in France's top-flight Ligue 1 was named after Foe.

Other African internationals to die from heart attacks while playing were Nigerians Amir Angwe and Endurance Idahor and Tunisian centerback Hedi Berkhissa, who collapsed during a friendly for his club Esperance, in his homeland, against Lyon.

Zambia's Chaswe Nsofwa died during a club match in Israel in 2007, while last year Cameroonian Patrick Ekeng collapsed and died playing for Dinamo Bucharest in Romania.

In April, former Gabon defender Moise Brou Apanga had a fatal heart attack while training with FC 105 Libreville.

Nigerian Nwankwo Kanu's career was halted for nine months not long after he returned with a gold medal from the 1996 Olympics when Inter Milan's doctors detected a heart defect.

Surgery in the US to replace an aortic valve allowed the former Arsenal striker to resume his career the next year.

Inter's medical team also found Senegal's Khalilou Fadiga had an irregular heartbeat after the club signed him and told one of the standout players of the 2002 World Cup to quit.

But Fadiga carried on playing and in 2004 joined Bolton Wanderers. He was later forced to have a defibrillator fitted after collapsing during the warm-up before a match at Tottenham Hotspur.

Spurs' White Hart Lane also witnessed a frightening moment in 2012, when the quick thinking of a doctor in the crowd saved the life of another Bolton player, Congo-born Fabrice Muamba.

He fell to the ground just before halftime but survived despite his heart having stopped beating for 78 minutes.

Reuters