Indonesian goalkeeper dies after mid-game collision

JAKARTA: Indonesian football was in mourning on Monday after celebrated goalkeeper Choirul Huda died following an on-pitch collision with a team-mate.

Huda, 38, a long-time regular for his hometown club Persela in East Java, collapsed just before half-time after Sunday’s accidental clash with Brazilian midfielder Ramon Rodrigues.

Video footage showed the father of two clutching his chest in pain before he was rushed away on a stretcher and taken to hospital. Doctors said he stopped breathing and suffered a heart attack.

“He received an emergency treatment for a few minutes in the hospital but he could not be saved. He died before 5:00 pm yesterday,” Persela’s assistant coach Yuhronur Efendi told AFP.Doctors said the medical team tried to revive the veteran Huda, a former fringe player in the national set-up, for about an hour.

“Choirul Huda suffered from traumatic collision with a team-mate which caused him to stop breathing and have cardiac arrest,” Yudistiro Andri Nugroho, a doctor from Lamongan hospital, said in a statement.