{"id":25180,"date":"2016-05-08T03:58:50","date_gmt":"2016-05-08T03:58:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/patrick-ekeng-death-sister-claims-cameroon\/"},"modified":"2016-05-08T03:58:35","modified_gmt":"2016-05-08T03:58:35","slug":"patrick-ekeng-death-sister-claims-cameroon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/patrick-ekeng-death-sister-claims-cameroon\/","title":{"rendered":"Patrick Ekeng death: Sister claims Cameroon midfielder ‘felt tired’ before game"},"content":{"rendered":"

{The sister of Patrick Ekeng, who died after collapsing while playing for Dinamo Bucharest, claims he said he was “feeling very tired” before the game.}<\/p>\n

Cameroon’s Ekeng, 26, fell to the floor in the 70th minute of the televised Romanian league match against Viitorul and was pronounced dead in hospital two hours later.<\/p>\n

“He told his best friend he was not able to play,” Monique Chantal, Ekeng’s elder sister, told BBC Sport.<\/p>\n

“He said he was very tired.”<\/p>\n

She added: “Patrick was very generous, a gentleman. It is very painful he is leaving behind a family – it is like a dream, a nightmare.”<\/p>\n

Celine Chemi, Ekeng’s mother, said: “It is difficult to talk about my son at this moment, but I believe in God and submit to his will.<\/p>\n

“If this is football and the life of professional players then this calls for reflection.”<\/p>\n

Fifpro, the world footballers’ union, and its Romanian member union Afan, are concerned about the level of first-aid treatment available to Ekeng.<\/p>\n

Afan said that after the death of Nigerian Henry Chinonso Ihelewere in a pre-season match in 2012, it asked the Romanian football federation to make it compulsory for clubs to have fully equipped ambulances at all official and friendly matches.<\/p>\n

“It would have cost as little as 400 euros per club per match to have state-of-the-art equipment available but the plan was not adopted,” said Afan president Emilian Hulubei.<\/p>\n

“We are continually fighting for more rights for players. Footballers in Romania are a long way from being treated the way normal workers should be.”<\/p>\n

Fifpro general secretary Theo van Seggelen added: “Our thoughts go out to everyone affected. It’s simply shocking.<\/p>\n

“After local authorities complete their investigation, we expect answers as to whether or not this tragedy could have been avoided.”<\/p>\n

Dinamo Bucharest say they contracted three ambulances for the match and that they were “properly equipped for emergency interventions”.<\/p>\n

Team doctor Liviu Batineanu said: “The player collapsed on the ground. We went in immediately, without waiting for the referee’s permission, and we began the first resuscitation manoeuvres.”<\/p>\n

Ekeng last spoke to his mother on Thursday before she left for a trip to a nearby village. She says he talked about the house he was building back home in Yaounde, the Cameroonian capital.<\/p>\n

“We did [normally] speak every day,” she said. “But because I was in the village he sent someone to see me and I was to call when I came back.”<\/p>\n

The club is making arrangements for the repatriation of the body.<\/p>\n

The Romanian Football Federation announced on Saturday that the Romanian Cup final between Dinamo and Cluj would be put back a week to 17 May.<\/p>\n

It said all games scheduled for this weekend would be postponed.<\/p>\n

\"Ekeng<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{The sister of Patrick Ekeng, who died after collapsing while playing for Dinamo Bucharest, claims he said he was “feeling very tired” before the game.} Cameroon’s Ekeng, 26, fell to the floor in the 70th minute of the televised Romanian league match against Viitorul and was pronounced dead in hospital two hours later. “He told […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[100],"byline":[249],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-25180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports","tag-africa","byline-bbc"],"bylines":[{"id":249,"name":"BBC","slug":"bbc","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":104}],"contributors":[{"id":249,"name":"BBC","slug":"bbc","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":104}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25180"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25180\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25180"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=25180"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=25180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}