Football heartbreak

Footballer Javannie Thompson was warming up on a playing field in his Old Harbour housing scheme on Sunday as he prepared for a community game that day.

But after a completing two laps, eyewitnesses watched as he clutched his chest in anguish and crumpled to the ground.

Moments after being taken to a doctor who lived in the neighbourhood, the 25-year-old was pronounced dead, an assessment that was confirmed when the body was taken to Spanish Town Hospital.

The shock passing has left his parents reeling and refocuses scrutiny on sporting emergencies with fatal consequences or which have landed athletes at death’s door.

Maxine Thompson, Javannie’s mother, said that he had suffered chest pains while playing sports when he was younger and recalls a fainting spell before a match.

Javannie had no history of asthma or any other respiratory illnesses, she said.

Medical checks into his experiences were inconclusive.

But nothing could tear Javannie from his passion for football, a sport in which he took refuge whenever he wasn’t at work.

“All if him feel sick, him always a play,” his mother said.

That fire burned from his days in primary school, Mrs Thompson said, and the Calabar High alumnus transitioned to play on the Sagicor Group Jamaica team after joining the company when he was 18.

The coronavirus pandemic has put a damper on activity for the Sagicor Group Jamaica football team for which Javannie played.

With more than 105,000 cumulative infections and a new record daily positivity rate on Monday, Jamaica has maintained a ban on competitive football except for schoolboy, premier league, and international competitions.

Sean Blackwood, manager of Sagicor Group Jamaica’s football team, said he last spoke with the late soccer player on January 4.

Thompson worked with Sagicor in the facilities and records management unit.

The company has expressed sympathy to his family.

“Javannie was a valued team member of Sagicor ... He was an accomplished footballer who represented the group and his gregarious and friendly personality will be missed. Our heartfelt condolences are extended to his family and colleagues,” the company said.

His death has come as a crushing blow to Errol Thompson, his father.

“It shocking! Mi bawl, man ... . Mi caa believe it,” said the elder Thompson, who deferred joining his family to view his son’s body at a Spanish Town morgue.

The last time Maxine Thompson saw her son was on Friday night when he visited the family home and dropped off a well-needed cell phone for his father. But his dad was asleep.

NOT QUESTIONING FATE

The deceased’s mother, a fervent Christian, is philosophical about her loss. She said she will not question God about her son’s fate.

“I still praise Him ... ,” she said of God. “It’s hard, you know, ... but God gives me peace so that I can smile.”

Javannie’s girlfriend of five years, Monique Lattibeaudiere, is trying to come to grips with life as a single parent.

She has had to leave the Old Harbour home she shared with her partner in her time of grief.

Lattibeaudiere is now summoning the strength to care for their three-year-old daughter Jabonique, whose name is a hybrid of his nickname, ‘Jason’, and hers, Monique.

“I believe I will do a good job. I only have one choice and one choice only: to take care of her,” she said.

The football world - locally and internationally – has been jolted by a number of cases of on-field trauma.

Reggae Boy Tremaine Stewart collapsed and died during a community ball game in April 2021. Two months later, high-profile Danish midfielder Christian Eriksen survived cardiac arrest during a match and his future has been derailed.

Argentine Sergio Aguero fell ill during a game and was later diagnosed with cardiac arrhythmia – having an irregular or fast heartbeat – dooming his career.

Dr Rohan Wilks, cardiologist at the Heart Foundation of Jamaica, has called for increased screening of athletes to detect abnormalities that could cause sudden death through cardiac arrest.

“Really and truly, the sporting bodies and associations really should coordinate to arrange screening for their athletes prior to them participating in exercise and sports,” said Wilks.