Uruguayan footballer Juan Izquierdo, a player for the Nacional club, passed away in Brazil on Tuesday, five days after collapsing from a heart attack during a match against São Paulo, the team announced late Tuesday.
The 27-year-old defender collapsed in the 84th minute of the match, which was part of the Copa Libertadores, Latin America’s most prestigious club tournament.
Izquierdo was immediately transported by ambulance to the Albert Einstein Hospital, where doctors reported that he had suffered a “cardiac arrest of undetermined onset, secondary to an arrhythmia.”
Despite being sedated and placed on a ventilator, Izquierdo’s condition worsened as he experienced “a progression of brain involvement and an increase in intracranial pressure,” the hospital stated.
“With the deepest pain and shock in our hearts, Club Nacional de Football announces the death of our beloved player Juan Izquierdo,” Nacional wrote on social media platform X, accompanied by a black and white photograph of the athlete.
Tragically, Izquierdo’s wife, Selena, had given birth to their second child just a week ago.
On Monday, it was revealed that Izquierdo had been diagnosed with “a small arrhythmia” a decade ago during routine youth team check-ups, according to Sebastian Bauza, director of the National Sports Secretariat. However, Nacional’s club president, Alejandro Balbi, noted that Izquierdo had “never shown any cardiac episode” during examinations since joining the club in January this year.
Born in Montevideo in 1991, Izquierdo began his professional career in 2017, playing for several first-division Uruguayan clubs and also having a stint with Atlético San Luis in Mexico.
