Indian man dies after being struck by football

Dubai: An Indian expatriate died in a freak accident after a football hit his chest during a weekend game at Zabeel Park on Friday. Ratheesh Kunhipurayil, 31, collapsed soon after failing to receive the ball properly and was rushed to a hospital where he was declared dead, his friends told XPRESS.

“He was the nicest guy around. Soft-spoken and always helpful, he was a thorough gentleman. That something like this could happen to him we had never imagined in our wildest dreams,” said one of Kunhipurayil’s colleagues at a Dubai-based bank where he worked in the credit card division.

“He was a very happy-go-lucky kind of a guy and was over the moon these days, particularly since becoming a father for the first time. It is a shocker for all of us,” said another friend of Kunhipurayil, who hailed from Kannur in North Kerala.

“Can’t believe our good friend is gone. He was too young to die,” said another who knew Kunhipurayil well.

Kunhipurayil’s wife had delivered their first child barely six months ago.

Exact cause

The exact cause of his death is not clear. Cardiologist Dr Ashok Kapoor, who regularly sees national level footballers, athletes and especially pilots who are particularly at risk of acute incapacitation due to heart problems, says sudden cardiac arrest among young people may happen due to underlying conditions - sometimes genetic - like the hypertrophy (enlargement) of the left ventricular chamber. “Young people with such conditions often initially don’t get enough signs that the main chamber of their heart may be enlarged. Sometimes during severe activity or due to sudden shock, especially when they are exhausted or dehydrated, they may suffer a sudden obstruction to their aortic blood flow which may lead to chaotic and erratic heartbeat. In some cases, the heart stops altogether, leading to sudden death. So a routine check for all such known and unknown heart conditions is a must for all,” he told XPRESS.

Previous incidents...

Amateur footballer Dipak Adhikari from Nepal died last November in Abu Dhabi after collapsing in a football match.

In 2006, Egyptian international footballer Mohamed Abdelwahab, playing for Al Ahly, died from undetected heart defect during a training match. Doctors in Egypt ruled that the death of international defender was the result of heart failure. The 22-year-old was training with African club champions Ahly when he collapsed after 35 minutes. He was rushed to a Cairo hospital but died before arriving.

The most high-profile death in a football field however remains that of Marc-Vivien Foé who collapsed while playing in the 2003 FIFA Confederations Cup semi-final between his country, Cameroon and Colombia, and died shortly afterward in hospital. An autopsy later revealed the cause of death was hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.