A soccer player was given a yellow card by a no-nonsense referee for what he believed was flopping, but the player had in fact dropped dead of a heart attack.
Goran Tunjic, a 32-year-old defender playing for the Croatian team Mladost, collapsed and fell over after being tackled in the 35th minute of a game against local rivals Hrvatski Sokola.
The referee, who had warned the teams in their dressing rooms before kick-off that he would deal firmly with any play-acting, promptly strode across the pitch to the prone player and waved a yellow card at him.
Sokola fans cheered but players who gathered around saw Tunjic was in serious trouble.
The referee realized his mistake and called for medical aid. The unconscious Tunjic was carted off the field and taken to a nearby hospital.
But he was declared dead on arrival, with doctors saying he had almost certainly died on the pitch from a massive heart attack.
“Doctors tried to help him but there was nothing they could do,” a club spokesman said of the player, who had no previous medical problems. “He just fell dead on the spot.”
The game was called with the score at 0-0.
