SOCCER: A Suffolk footballer collapsed and died during a football match at the weekend.Team-mates of Nicholas Roche, 30, who was captaining the Long Melford Working Men's Club side against Eastern Old Boys, tried in vain to revive him after he fell to the ground during a Martin's Builders Sudbury Sunday League game.
SOCCER
A SUFFOLK footballer collapsed and died during a football match at the weekend.
Team-mates of Nicholas Roche, 30, who was captaining the Long Melford Working Men's Club side against Eastern Old Boys, tried in vain to revive him after he fell to the ground during a Martin's Builders Sudbury Sunday League game.
Paramedics say the death may have been caused by a heart attack.
Childhood friend Stuart Binfield, 31, a striker in the team, said: "Nick just collapsed in his own half. The ball was at the other end of the pitch.
"I don't think he was even running. Someone said to kick the ball out as there was a man down. We thought he was having a fit."
Nick, who lived with his wife and two young children in Queensway, Acton, near Sudbury, was known to his friends as 'Dotty' because of his red hair and freckles.
His team-mates, goalkeeper Paul Atkinson and right back Paul Richardson, tried to resuscitate him.
Paramedics then tried in vain to restart his heart as he lay on the Assington village hall pitch.
A minute's silence will be held before all Sudbury Sunday League games.
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