The 27-year-old Uruguayan footballer has died after suffering a heart attack and collapsed in the middle of a match.

Un nouveau drame dans le football sud am̩ricain. EFE РIsaac Fontana

Le footballeur uruguayen Juan Izquierdo est décédé mardi, cinq jours après avoir été terrassé par une crise cardiaque en plein match à Sao Paulo, au Brésil, a annoncé son club.

"It is with the greatest sadness and a heavy heart that the Club Nacional de Football announces the death of our beloved player Juan Izquierdo", the Uruguayan team said on the social network X.

"You will always be with us"

"The entire Nacional is in mourning for this irreparable loss. May he rest in peace. Juan, you will always be with us", the club added. The 27-year-old defender collapsed on the pitch at Sao Paulo's Morumbi stadium in the 84th minute of the second leg of the Copa Libertadores round of 16, following a heart attack. He was placed in intensive care at the Albert-Einstein hospital in the Brazilian megacity.

Doctors had stated that the player was suffering from "cardiac arrest of undetermined origin, secondary to an arrhythmia". Since then, expressions of affection and solidarity have followed one another and the Uruguayan championship was suspended this weekend.

Nacional did not train on Sunday either. In Brazil, Sao Paulo wore light blue jerseys with the legend "Fuerza Izquierdo" on Sunday for their home league match against Vitoria.

Read also: Victim of cardiac arrhythmia, he collapses on the pitch: a Uruguayan footballer in intensive care

In the United States, Uruguayan star Luis Suarez dedicated the double he scored on Saturday during his club Inter's victory Miami to the defender of Nacional. “Juan, we are all with you and your family!”, had written “El Pistolero” on X. “May God be with you”, the Uruguayan striker of Liverpool Darwin Nunez had also wished him.