Tie halted after Leicester player collapses

Clive Clarke, defender for Leicester City, was sent to hospital Friday night after falling during the Carling Cup game against Nottingham Forest.

The 27-year-old, who is on loan from Sunderland, passed out in the locker room at halftime and was described as “very seriously ill” by Leicester’s chief executive, Tim Davies. Clarke eventually recovered consciousness and was transferred to Queen’s Medical Centre, where he remained in a stable condition in the coronary care unit late Friday night.

“When Clive went into the dressing room he collapsed and was very seriously ill,” said Davies. “He was taken to the hospital in an ambulance.” In the ambulance, he did say a few things. Our thoughts and prayers are with Clive and his family, and we hope he recovers quickly. Clive is ill and on his way to the hospital. That is challenging not only for the Leicester players, but also for the Nottingham players.

“As you may guess, everyone is really upset and shook up. “This is the first time we’ve heard anything about Clive,” Davies added, praising Forest’s cooperation on the night. “I’d like to express my gratitude to Nottingham Forest for handling the situation  so fast and to [the manager] Colin Calderwood, [chief executive] Mark Arthur and [chairman] Nigel Doughty for calling off the match so quickly,” he said.

Clarke collapsed in the visitors’ dressing room with Leicester trailing 1-0 after Junior Agogo’s header on 29 minutes. Paramedics rushed down the tunnel to attend to Clarke and the restart was initially delayed for 15 minutes before a further 10-minute delay was announced over the Tannoy. Calderwood and his Leicester counterpart, Martin Allen, then emerged from the tunnel to announce that the game had been abandoned. “We are afraid that due to the serious illness of a Leicester player both clubs have agreed to postpone the match,” Calderwood said.

Forest’s chief executive, Mark Arthur said: “Football is secondary to human issues and as soon as we found out the serious nature of Clive’s situation we went straight to the referee and said we would do whatever is right by Leicester. They are going through a trauma at the moment and the three parties very quickly agreed the game should be abandoned.”