What is the cause of so many cardiac related deaths in football/soccer?

reno_queen

It was recently brought to my attention that a number of football/soccer players have either died on the field or have collapsed on the field only to die later in a hospital from cardiac related ailments. According to Wikipedia : From 1984 - Present, there have been approximately 60 deaths where a player has collapsed and/or died either during a game or during a practice session. I have attempted to research this more, but all I am noticing are...

Originally asked by steelersquirrel on Stack Exchange (sports) (CC BY-SA 3.0).

uphilltech

Great question — answering as the UphillTech team:

This is just a long comment. First I am positive that you will have more cardiac deaths in football/soccer than the average population. Let's not forget basketball too which is probably the most famous sport for athletes dying while playing. This whole thing is very close to me because I have witnessed a friend die playing football and another collapse on the basketball court and have open heart surgery hours later. There are a lot of factors that predispose this to happening: the male athlete is more likely to have genetic mutations concerning the heart or surrounding valves. the male athlete in these sports are usually big and fast which puts more stress on the heart these sports require...

Full answer by Coach-D: https://sports.stackexchange.com/a/13308 (CC BY-SA 3.0).

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