O'Donnell death stuns football world

The death of Motherwell captain Phil O’Donnell has stunned the football world.

O’Donnell died at the age of 35 after collapsing during his team’s match against Dundee United in the Scottish Premier League.

Sport has too often been struck by death in action, O’Donnell joins a sad list of those who have tragically lost their lives.

The death of Cameroon midfielder Marc-Vivien Foe in 2003 immediately after his nation’s Confederations Cup match against Colombia was a tragedy felt across the world.

Football has been particularly hard hit by such society-changing events as the decimation of Manchester United’s first-team squad in 1958 and Torino in 1949 - both in air crashes.

In 1964, Tottenham’s brilliant Scottish midfielder John White was struck down by lightning while sheltering under a tree at a golf course, while in 1931 Celtic goalkeeper John Thomson died from a head injury sustained while playing against Rangers.

Former Rangers and Motherwell winger Davie Cooper, a former team-mate of O’Donnell, died at 39 after suffering a brain haemorrhage while filming a training video for young footballers.

Recently, England cricketer Ben Hollioake died in a car accident in Perth aged just 24. His death in 2002 came at the same time as the England squad were touring Australia, although he was not in the touring party.

That accident came just nine months after another young international cricketer, Zimbabwe’s Trevor Madondo, succumbed to a severe bout of malaria in a Harare hospital.

Madondo had established himself as one of Zimbabwe’s most promising middle-order Test batsmen.

The intrinsic risks of motorsport provides a toll of some of its greatest exponents who have perished chasing speed or glory.

Dale Earnhardt was killed at the Daytona 500 in 2001, while Formula One lost men such as Ayrton Senna, Gilles Villeneuve and Jim Clark to crashes during competition.

While fate and ill fortune had their parts to play in many deaths, two incidents brought more sinister elements in recent years.

The Munich Olympics in 1972 were utterly overshadowed by the massacre of 11 Israeli athletes after they were taken hostage by Palestinian terrorists.

In 1994, Colombian defender Andres Escobar was murdered just days after returning home from the World Cup having scored an own goal against the United States.