In what was a major scare for Argentina’s U-23 Olympic squad during what would be an eventual 5-0 pounding of Chile, Manchester City’s young gem Claudio Echeverri collapsed in the 35 minute from pain in his chest and lack of breath.
Medical staff quickly came out to attend to the current River Plate player, and the 18-year-old continued to play until the 65th minute where Argentina is still alive and in first place to book a ticket to this year’s Summer Olympics in Paris.
Echeverri spoke to the media after the scare, and stated how he felt, while on Wednesday the future Premier League player will undergo a routine medical test to make sure everything is okay.
Claudio Echeverri on chest pain
“Something like this had never happened to me, I felt very scared. I’m fine thank god”, the young star said to the media post-match.
“During the game I had a very strong pain in my chest. I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t breathe very well. I was very scared. I jumped down to breathe and then, thank God, it went away a little.”
Argentina in first in Olympic qualifying
Argentina is in first place in Group B of Conmebol Olympic qualifying. Javier Mascherano’s side will take on Uruguay next who with Marcelo Bielsa on the bench was knocked out of the competition after suffering 2 straight losses and then winning their third match but mathematically without chances of qualifying.
Atlanta United’s Thiago Almada scored two goals against Chile and is still the subject of transfer talks to Serie A side Fiorentina.
