Player dies on pitch after heart failure
A Mangochi Police FC player Junior Kalipinde died of heart failure on Thursday after collapsing during training.
He is the third local player to die on the pitch in recent times after former Big Bullets and Flames midfielder John ‘CJ’ Banda and Bullets striker Patrick Mvula suffered suspected cardiac arrests while playing social football.
Southern Region Football League (SRFL) vice-general secretary Kingsley Simbeye confirmed the player’s death, saying he was pronounced dead on arrival at Mangochi District Hospital.
“According to official communication that we have received, he died of heart failure,” said Simbeye yesterday.
The SRFL vice-GS said Kalipinde’s burial was slated for yesterday at his home village in Phalombe.
Kalipinde’s demise led to the postponement of a SRFL Division One match between Mangochi Police and leaders Surestream Academy.
Efforts to talk to Mangochi Police FC officials yesterday proved futile.
Former Cameroon star Mark Vivien-Foe also died of cardiac arrest in June 2003 while former English Premier League footballer Fabrice Muamba also went into cardiac arrest but escaped death by a whisker on March 17 2012. He was ‘dead’ for 78 minutes and resurrected miraculously.
