Heart attack deaths scare Donovan, MLS

08:27 AM ET 04.22 | A few hours before a wary Landon Donovan ran onto the practice field at the Home Depot Center on Thursday, a funeral took place in Bergamo, Italy. And those two events may have more in common than you think. Piermario Morosini, a 25-year-old midfielder for Livorno in Italy's Serie B, collapsed and died of cardiac arrest in the first half of his team's match last weekend. He was laid to rest Thursday, with thousands of fans packing the streets of his hometown as his coffin, draped in numerous jerseys passed. Half a world away Donovan, a 30-year-old midfielder for the Galaxy, was still wondering how that had happened. Donovan was so spooked by Morosini's death that he sought out members of the Galaxy's medical staff for a long talk before a game with Portland last weekend. The events of the last month so alarmed MLS that the league took the unusual step of emailing teams to urge them to review existing emergency medical procedures, check equipment such as heart defibrillators and review routes to the nearest hospitals.

Los Angeles Times