Sad news emerged from Poland Saturday as a 24- year old Nigerian player, Joshua Tamunobarabonye Pepple, died on the pitch while in action for his Regional League side, Pomorzanin Nowogard, in a League game.

Sad trend

The death is the second in recent times following the death of Henry Chinonso Ihelewere, another young footballer, in Romania recently.

According to the reports from Poland, Tamunobarabonye, who has starred for various teams in Poland, fell on the pitch barely a minute into the match with Szczecin Śmierdnica , but was  said to be okay to continue playing.

In the 26^th minute the Nigerian player, born in Port Harcout, fell a second time, and while the game continued into the 30th minute, the player was confirmed dead on the field.

Players from both teams and the referee had to abandon the match and postponed it to another date. Before the abrupt end, Tamunobarabonye’s Pomorzanin Nowogard were leading 1-0.

As reported by the former editor of IGOL, Maciej Pietrasik, the cause of death of the young Nigerian player might have been a heart attack, but doctors do not exclude neck injury. Nonetheless an autopsy is to be carried out to determine the actual cause of the death this week.

Joshua Tamunobarabonye Pepple was born on June 7, 1988.

He starred for teams like Steel Głowno, Mazovia Grójec, Oder Górzyca, Piast Choszczno Rewal Coast Rewal, Sparta Gryfice, Drava Culture people and lastly, Pomorzaninie Nowogard.