Serginho

Sao Paulo: Sao Caetano defender Serginho has died after suffering an apparent cardio-respiratory arrest and collapsing on the pitch during Wednesday?s Brazilian championship match against Sao Paulo.

The match was abandoned after Serginho, full name Paulo Sergio de Oliveira Silva, was taken to hospital early in the second half of the game at the Morumbi Stadium in Sao Paulo.

Television pictures showed Serginho, who celebrated his 30th birthday eight days ago, being carried off as doctors from both teams tried to revive him.

The Sao Luiz hospital said in a statement the player died 40 minutes after being brought in.

The match was called off at the request of the team captains. Players and officials from both sides gathered round the centre circle with their arms around each other. A message on the scoreboard read: ?Serginho, we pray for you?, while Sao Paulo fans chanted his name.

Players at the Criciuma-Corinthians match, which started later, wept on the field after hearing the news and what had been a fiercely-contested game petered out into a tame 1-1 draw.

Serginho became the latest high-profile case of a professional player collapsing during a game then dying.

In January, Hungarian international Miklos Feher died after collapsing from a heart attack in a Portuguese league game between his club Benfica and Vitoria Guimaraes.

The most high-profile case happened in June last year when Cameroon midfielder Marc-Vivien Foe collapsed and died during a Confederations Cup semi-final against Colombia in France. He was suffering from a heart-related condition.

Sao Caetano goalkeeper Silvio Luiz told television reporters that Serginho had been found to have a heart condition during routine tests at the start of this year.