Twenty-four-year-old Belgian soccer player Gregory Mertens died Thursday, three days after collapsing during a game because of cardiac arrest. Mertens’s team, Sporting Lokeren, announced the news on Twitter on Thursday morning.
“With sadness we inform you of the loss of Gregory Mertens. We wish his family and friends all the strength,” said the tweet, translated from Dutch.
Mertens, who previously played for Beligum’s national under-21 team, collapsed during a reserve-team game on Monday. After being revived on the field and transported to a hospital in the city of Genk, he was put into a coma, according to a team statement. His condition, however, continued to deteriorate in the next three days and on Thursday, his family agreed with doctors to cease life support for the player. Mertens was pronounced dead at 4:30 p.m. local time.
“Everyone in and around this club breathes soccer. But suddenly something happens that makes us realize that soccer is just soccer. Today is such a time,” the press statement continued.”Gregory was only at the club for one-and-a-half years, but made in that short time he became indispensable. … Now we will have to learn to live with the loss. Gregory, we will miss you!”
Mertens played 101 games in Belgium’s top-flight league on two teams, Cercle Brugge and Lokeren.
His best season was 2011/12, when he played 3022 minutes for the Bruges club and netted two goals.This season, he had started 11 games for Lokeren, who finished eighth in the regular-season table.
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