Girondins-Bordeaux of France winger, Samuel Kalu’s former club, KAA Gent of Belgium have dissociated themselves from a report that the player had suffered a heart attack during training with the Super Eagles in Alexandria, Egypt, megasportsarena.com reports.
A major scare was let off through the Eagles’ camp on Friday, when Kalu slumped while going for a corner kick, and the immediate report after was that he had a heart failure, but Gent admitted that the information had been passed on by error.
The report came in the wake of alarm bells that erupted in the Eagles’ camp on Friday evening, when Kalu had to be taken to hospital during the Nigerian team’s final training session before battling Burundi 24 hours later in their first match of this year’s Africa Cup of Nations.
However, follow information revealed that Kalu had actually collapsed due to severe dehydration, as the 21-year-old forward succumbed to the heat in Alexandria, where temperatures rose to 40C (104F), and the situation saw the Eagles’ training session delayed for about 25 minutes.
Soon after, though, Eagles’ spokesman, Toyin Ibitoye said Kalu was in a stable and comfortable condition after tests in hospital and downplayed what he called exaggerated reports on social media about a heart attack.
However, while Kalu was discharged from hospital to link up with the team later same day, he ended up missing Nigeria’s opening match of Egypt 2019, which would have been his first ever outing at the Nations Cup.
Kalu ended up watching the match from the stands, with television cameras zooming on him several times to confirm he was in good health, and commentators kept adding how cheering it was to see him back on his feet again after Friday’s scare.
Ibitoye added: “Kalu returned to the hotel in the early hours of Saturday and will remain under observation.”
On their part, Gent took to social media to refute any connection they might have been given with the report about a heart attack hitting Kalu, and went on to wish him speedy recovery from the setback on Friday.
Gent stated: “Luckily our ex player Samuel Kalu did not suffer a heart attack (sorry for the wrong earlier post). He fainted in training due to severe dehydration. Get well soon anyway Samuel!”
