It is one of those moments you never forget. A Tuesday night training session, the floodlights sparkling with a faint trickle of drizzle. Muddy. Another 20 minutes and we'd be inside for a nice warm shower, assuming someone had remembered to turn the heater on. Call for a pass from the man inside, but he takes the contact instead and goes down. And never gets up. Ever.
Howard English was the first person of my age that I knew to die from a heart attack. It's a long time ago now, but the images of bewilderment amount everyone on the pitch and the frantic calling for an ambulance are still etched on al our minds. Of course people die from heart attacks, but surely not young, fit athletic sportsmen. Not out of the blue like that.
Well they do. That's the trouble. Even teenagers fall victim to sudden arrhythmia death syndrome (SADS), as it's called, which is why the announcement tomorrow that the electronics giant, Philips, are going to pump 1 million (euros) (£670,000) into funding the screening of 1,500 potentially elite athletes is to be welcomed as one piece of sporting sponsorship of genuine long-term value.
In the aftermath of Howard's death, a lot of us wanted to find out more about what had happened. They symptoms of heart conditions can be very deceptive, especially to individuals who are used to pushing themselves to the limit. It's quite easy to relate chest pains to over-exertion, or just having an off-day, when in fact it's the body flashing a warning sign. In Italy, such screening is mandatory for all young sportsmen and women, whereas, often for reasons of cost, it's not in this country,.
Exercise, perhaps rather alarmingly, is associated with a tenfold increase in the incidence of heart problems, and yet a straightforward scan, and then proper examination of the data, can highlight the symptoms that, if left unmanaged, can lead to the sudden death of apparently supremely healthy young athletes.
The charity, Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY), estimate that up to one in every 160 young people are at risk of carrying one of the conditions that can lead to heart problems, and their 'Save Our Athletes' campaign, led by Professor Greg Whyte of John Moores University in Liverpool, will ensure that in the run-up to the 2012 Olympics, as many leading competitors as possible can be screened.
"The next five years will be seminal to our understanding of which people are most vulnerable to sudden death during exercise," he said.
At tomorrow's launch, spearheaded by Sir Ian Botham, three Olympians – Rob Hayles, the cyclist, and swimmers Karen Pickering and Mark Foster – will be among the first to undergo the screening process.
It's not scaremongering. It's not suggesting that our teams for 2012 are going to be decimated by a plague of cardiac arrests.
It's just that in a world where thousandths of a second make the difference between being first and being nowhere, and 'no pain no gain' is the mantra for all those taking part, it's probably quite a good idea to understand every inch of your body, and the lengths to which it can, and cannot go.
