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#3 Fernando Torres' head injury, and Francis Kone
In a La Liga fixture between Atletico Madrid and Deportivo La Coruna in March, Fernando Torres was knocked out cold due to a clash of heads with Deportivo's Alejandro Bergantinos. It was horrific to watch as his head bounced off the turf, rendering him unconscious right away.
The presence of mind of his teammates Gabi and Sime Vrsaljko received praise from all over as their reaction prevented Torres from swallowing his tongue. The Deportivo players also frantically waved for medics shunning any thoughts about the match for a while, praying for the player to be alright.
Deportivo's club doctor Carlos Larino praised the duo's perfect reaction which prevented the incident from turning into a very serious injury. Another beautiful act of sportsmanship on the football field.
The club described his injury as a brain trauma injury later in a tweet. After undergoing CT scans, the player was cleared to leave the hospital as he luckily had suffered no major injury.
Torres was later able to Tweet: "Many thanks to all concerned by me and for your messages of encouragement. It was just a scare. I hope to return very soon!"
Similarly, another inspiring human being on the football ground is Slovacko's Togolese player Francis Kone, playing in the Czech First League. Not new to saving lives on the football field, Kone saved the life of opposition player Bohemians 1905's goalkeeper - Martin Berkovec, after he fell unconscious due to a collision with a team-mate.
“I can’t stand there, watching someone suffocate, without doing something. I just can’t,” Kone told FIFA.com. “I didn’t even think about it.”
The player was awarded the FIFA Fair Play Award at The Best FIFA Football awards gala in October. Kone aided a player on the field for an astonishing fourth time in his career. Like Gabi in Torres' incident, he prevented suffocation by moving the tongue with his fingers. A lot to learn from this true hero on the football pitch!
