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The Premier League match between Bournemouth and Luton Town was abandoned after Hatters captain Tom Lockyer appeared to collapse in the centre circle.
Around the hour mark at the Vitality Stadium, the centre-back went down away from the ball – with seemingly no contact from an opponent – and was immediately treated by medical staff, while Luton boss Rob Edwards also sprinted on to the pitch to support his skipper and usher players away.
After a few minutes of treatment, the Welsh centre-back was moved on to a stretcher, with a black blanket covering him and was taken down the tunnel once both sets of players had left the field.
Reporters at the ground were told that the Bournemouth staff doctor confirmed Lockyer was “alert and responsive” in the tunnel after being stretchered off and he was then taken to hospital.
After a delay of around 20 minutes with the game suspended, it was officially abandoned and will be completed at a later date.
Lockyer had previously collapsed on the pitch during last season’s Championship play-off final against Coventry City. It then emerged that the 28-year-old suffered an atrial fibrillation, a condition that can cause an irregular or abnormally fast heart rate.
He subsequently had surgery to fix the issue and returned to football earlier this season, having been cleared to play and confident with the procedure he underwent.
“I’ve had the operation to fix it and it shouldn’t happen again,” he told the BBC at the time. “There’s not really any reason to say why that happened. I’ve been given the all-clear – it is what it is and I just want to draw a line under it now and move on.”
Luton and Bournemouth were drawing 1-1 at the time of the incident as Elijah Adebayo’s early goal for the Hatters was cancelled out by Dominic Solanke on 58 minutes.