Saturday’s AFC Bournemouth-Luton Town Premier League soccer match was suspended during the second half after the visitors’ captain went into cardiac arrest on the field.
Luton Town defender Tom Lockyer collapsed away from the ball during the 59th minute of the game. The stoppage lasted into the 65th minute before a decision was made to abandon the 1-1 contest.
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“The fixture between AFC Bournemouth and Luton Town has been suspended,” the club wrote in a post to X, formerly known as Twitter. “All our thoughts are with Tom Lockyer at this time.”
Within another half hour, Luton Town shared another update that indicated Lockyer, 29, was “thankfully responsive and has been taken to hospital.” It apologized to match attendees for the indefinite stoppage in play, explaining that players on both teams “were in no state of mind to continue with the game after seeing their much-loved team-mate and friend taken off like that, and staff could not carry on with managing the game in such circumstances having had to deal with the situation.”
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After about another 30 minutes, the club confirmed on X that Lockyer had suffered cardiac arrest and was in stable condition at the hospital. The Premier League has not announced a date for the resumption of Saturday’s match.
Saturday was not the first time this year that Lockyer collapsed during a match. The Welsh defender spent five days in a hospital in May after he had to leave Luton Town’s Championship playoff final, in which the club was vying for promotion to the Premier League. He underwent heart surgery to remedy an atrial fibrillation, and he was cleared to resume playing in June.
