Official Celtic
THE world of football has been left stunned at the sudden and tragic death of Phil O’Donnell. The Motherwell captain collapsed during his side’s game at Fir Park against Dundee United and was rushed to hospital where, sadly, he passed away.
Phil O’Donnell, who was 35-years-old, began his career with Motherwell in 1990 and spent four years at the club, helping them to a Scottish Cup triumph in 1991 before signing for Celtic in 1994.
Over the next five years he made 114 appearances for the club, scoring 20 goals and he was part of the Hoops squad which won the league championship in 1998.
A year later he moved south to Sheffield Wednesday where he remained until 2004 when he returned to Motherwell.
Everyone connected with Celtic Football Club is absolutely devastated at the news of Phil’s death. He was a tremendous professional with every club he played for, and in his second spell at Motherwell proved to be a great example to all the younger players at the club.
The thoughts and prayers of everyone at Celtic are with Phil’s family, friends and team-mates at Motherwell at this desperately sad time.
The flags at Celtic Park are flying at half-mast as a mark of respect.
Spanish newspaper
Muere O’Donnell tras desplomarse en pleno partido
El escocés, de 35 años y capitán del Motherwell, iba a ser sustituido
Phil O'Donnell, de 35 años de edad, capitán del Motherwell, de la Primera División escocesa, falleció minutos después de haberse desplomado sobre el césped justamente cuando se dirigía hacia la banda del terreno de juego para ser sustituido. Anoche no se conocían todavía detalles exactos acerca de la causa de su muerte, aunque se cree que se debió a problemas cardiacos. O'Donnell es el noveno futbolista profesional que fallece durante un partido desde 2003. El caso anterior fue el del sevillista Antonio Puerta, a finales de agosto pasado.
La noticia en otros webs
El entrenador del Motherwell, Mark McGheem, explicó que había ordenado la sustitución de O'Donnell no porque pensara que se encontraba mal, sino porque su equipo estaba ganando con claridad (5-3) al Dundee United y quería que guardara fuerzas para el partido del próximo miércoles.Corría el minuto 78 en Fir Park cuando O'Donnell, que estaba ya camino de la banda, se desmayó. Fue atendido durante cinco minutos sobre el terreno y retirado inmediatamente en camilla para ser trasladado en una ambulancia al Hospital General de Wishaw. Pero el jugador nunca recuperó la consciencia y fue declarado muerto a las 5.18 horas de la tarde, una más en la España peninsular.Fue una tragedia especialmente sentida por David Clarkson, sobrino de O'Donnell y autor de dos de los cinco goles. Tenía que haber sido una tarde de gloria para el Motherwell, un equipo habituado a la zona media y baja de la modesta Liga escocesa y que esta temporada está viviendo el mejor momento en muchísimos años, ya que va el tercero en la tabla clasificatoria. Clarkson, muy impresionado por el desvanecimiento de su tío, también tuvo que ser sustituido.El club confirmó el fallecimiento de O'Donnell a través de una nota pública en la que explica que los médicos creen que el jugador sufrió una apoplejía (infarto cerebral).“Es una tragedia inenarrable para la familia de Phil. En estos momentos no sabemos exactamente la causa de su muerte, pero el club está obviamente en contacto con el equipo médico del hospital”, declaró el presidente, John Boyle. “Phil era no sólo una inspiración como jugador y capitán del Motherwell, sino también una inspiración como persona”, añadió.“Estamos absolutamente destrozados y nuestros pensamientos están con la esposa y la familia de Phil. Era un gran profesional y lo dio todo por este deporte. Ésta es una tragedia terrible”, declaró el entrenador, McGhee.O'Donnell, internacional en una ocasión con la selección absoluta de Escocia, empezó su carrera en el Motherwell, que le traspasó en 1994 al Celtic Glasgow. Tras pasar también por el Sheffield Wednesday, inglés, en 2004 volvió al Motherwell.Su muerte se une a la del sevillista Puerta, a finales de agosto, y eleva una ya larga lista de jugadores fallecidos sobre el terreno de juego en los últimos años.En 2004 fallecieron cuatro futbolistas en el espacio de tan sólo cinco meses: los benfiquistas Feher, húngaro, y Baiano, el ucraniano Pavitsky y el guardameta peruano Uribe. Todos ellos murieron como consecuencia de crisis cardiacas. También ese año murió el brasileño Serginho. En 2003 murió el camerunés Foe cuando jugaba con su selección en Francia y en 2006 el inglés Gadsby a causa de una cardiomiopatía arrítmica ventricular.El fútbol español ha sufrido la muerte de tres jugadores, dos de ellos sobre el campo y uno poco antes de un partido. Además de Puerta, el también sevillista Berruezo se desplomó cuando se jugaba el minuto 6 de un Pontevedra-Sevilla, en El Pasarón, el 7 de enero de 1973. En 1987, el deportivista Sagarzazu murió en el autobús del Deportivo cuando se dirigía a Carral para jugar un amistoso contra el Ourense.
Marca.com
Fallece Phil O'Donnelll, jugador del Motherwell escocés La tragedia vuelve a golpear al fútbol.
Phil O'Donnell, capitán del Motherwell de la Premier League escocesa, falleció hoy durante la disputa del encuentro ante el Dundee United tras sufrir un desvanecimiento en el momento de ser sustituido. El jugador, de 35 años, sufrió al parecer un colapso y aunque fue evacuado de urgencia al el Wishaw General Hospital , el presidente del conjunto británico, Bill Dickie, confirmó su fallecimiento sin poder explicar las causas.
O'Donnell, que había iniciado su carrera futbolística en el propio Motherwell antes de su paso por el Celtic y el Sheffield inglés, estaba a punto de ser sustituido por Fitzpatrick, pero se derrumbó antes de que pudiera abandonar el terreno de juego por su propio pie.
El capitán fue tratado en el mismo campo durante cinco minutos antes de que su compañero entrase en el partido, en el que también estaba su sobrino, David Clarkson, que había marcado dos de los cinco goles de su equipo, que venció 5-3 al Dundee, y que tuvo que ser sustituido debido a su estado de 'shock' tras el incidente.
"No quiero decir nada más que todo el mundo está destrozado y que el club se pone a disposición de su esposa y su joven hijo. Nada más importa", señaló el entrenador del equipo Mark McGhee. Por su parte, el director ejecutivo Ian Stillie reconoció que estaban "conmocionados" y que a todos les estaba costando "comprender lo sucedido en pocas horas".
"En este momento, no tenemos datos sobre la trágica muerte de Phil O'Donnell. Se desvaneció y fue inmediatamente atendido por nuestro doctor y por el del Dundee United. Fue trasladado al hospital en ambulancia y creemos que pudo sufrir algún ataque de apoplejía", añadió.
Además, el delantero y compañero de equipo Chris Porter comentó a 'Sky Sports News' que nunca había "experimentado" algo así. "Phil se desvaneció y se quedó inconsciente. Es verdad que la cosa pintaba mal, pero personalmente no pensé que fuese a pasar nada malo", apuntó.
Sunday Herald
‘The old cliché that no-one had a bad word to say about him may as well have been coined for Phil O’Donnell’
PHIL O'Donnell was a quiet man whose death reduced the whole of Scottish football to silence last night. At the age of 35 he had entered the twilight years of a career which contained both high achievement and appalling luck with injuries. No-one could have guessed the final, tragic twist his body had in store. Motherwell lost one of their legends when Davie Cooper died of a brain haemorrhage 12 years ago and now they must deal with the death of another, also in his 30s. That is surely too much for one club to have to bear, although it need hardly be said that the pain is heightened for O'Donnell's family. We knew him only as a footballer. Above all else he was a son, the youngest of a family of five girls and two boys, and a husband and father of four. They sent him on his way to play just another routine football match yesterday – as he had done with professionalism and modesty for 17 years since making his debut for the same club – but it was no ordinary Saturday, and within hours they were inconsolable. There was no solace to be had in the fact they had tens of thousands of fellow mourners, nor consolation in the heartfelt tributes coming O'Donnell's way. The grieving process began quickly as supporters began to lay flowers and scarves at a sombre, dark and cold Fir Park last night. Death is never fair but the premature loss of O'Donnell is terribly cruel. He was a gentleman. The old cliché which gets dusted off in times like these, namely that no-one had a bad word to say about him, may as well have been coined specifically for O'Donnell. He was unfailingly polite, gracious, and reserved. Those qualities were evident to team-mates, opponents and the media, and transmitted to supporters of his own and even other clubs. People knew that O'Donnell was one of the good guys. Years ago he once turned up to play in a youth cup final at Fir Park only to realise that he did not recognise the official at the door. Rather than say "don't you know who I am" he avoided any fuss by walking to a nearby turnstile and paying his way in. "My family taught me to keep my feet on the ground no matter what," he once said. "It's just the way I was brought up, I suppose." As a teenager he had a talent which could not be contained. He burst into the Motherwell team under Tommy McLean in 1990 as an athletic, hard-running and skilful midfield player. His first goal came in the thrilling 1991 Scottish Cup final victory over Dundee United, although he had impressed his manager even before a ball was kicked. McLean had worried a little about whether the occasion may get to his shy young star, or at least he did until he had a look at him in their training camp before the game. "We were down at Irvine," said McLean. "At one point when others were getting a bit edgy I looked at Phil. He was just sitting there, munching a bar of chocolate." O'Donnell's left foot was sweet too. It helped him become the SPFA Young Player of the Year in 1992 with his performances then securing a move to Celtic – the club he supported – in 1994 for a transfer fee of £1.75 million. That remains the highest sum Motherwell have ever received for a player. The transfer was irresistible for him but it coincided with the physical breakdown which robbed him of so much action during what ought to have been his peak years. He had not been particularly susceptible to injuries when he was at Motherwell and actually played more league games in his first four seasons at Fir Park than he managed in the following decade at Celtic and Sheffield Wednesday, the club to whom he was released in the summer of 1999. Torn groin muscles, a hernia, a ruptured thigh, a broken kneecap, ruptured ligaments in his right knee, ankle damage: O'Donnell's medical problems could have filled an issue of The Lancet. It meant he could only fitfully display the talent which had made him the deserving recipient of his only Scotland cap, as a substitute against Switzerland in a World Cup qualifier in 1993. The sequence of injuries which dogged his 20s reduced him to a frustrating figure, unable to fully realise his talent, yet he was rightly proud of the two Scottish Cup winner's medals – with Motherwell and Celtic – and his role in the latter's league championship victory under Wim Jansen in 1998. Celtic supporters felt that they never saw the best of O'Donnell in his five seasons at the club although his contribution there was greater than it was in England, where he was an almost permanently injured bystander as Sheffield Wednesday fell from the Premiership to the third tier. By the end of 2003 he was in danger of drifting out of football altogether and had not made a senior appearance for over two years. But the then Motherwell manager Terry Butcher picked him up from Sheffield and took a look at him in training before deciding, inevitably, that at 31 he still had plenty left in the tank to serve in the SPL. He would no longer have the same energy or drive, of course, but he brought experience and an undiminished sense of quality and class. He signed an 18-month contract, subsequently extended it, and became a player-coach, a wise old presence in the team and also its captain, giving instructions and advice to team-mates who included his nephew, David Clarkson. "Uncle Phil" became his affectionate nickname from the whole squad. When he joined Motherwell he said: "I just feel as if I have lost the last four years, and now I'd like to try and gain it at this end." And that was what he was doing: despite missing nearly all of last season to yet another injury – to an Achilles tendon this time – the return to Motherwell was one of the most quietly rewarding phases of his career. He was a knowing thoroughbred for them, enjoying his football and even accepting invitations to be an analyst of matches on television. "I will be 36 in March and I am just trying to play as long as I can and enjoy it," he said in an interview only last month. "Honestly, each game is special to me. I have missed too many games in the middle of my career to stop playing at the age of 35. I can definitely play another two, three or even four years." Today those words are unbearably poignant. O'Donnell imagined his career ending at Fir Park, but never his life. 9:40pmSaturday29thDecember2007