Livorno's Piermario Morosini has died after suffering a cardiac arrest during an Italian second division game at Pescara Saturday, prompting the country's soccer federation to postpone this weekend's professional matches. “We have done everything possible to save him but he never regained consciousness,” doctor Leonardo Paloscia told reporters. Another doctor at the Pescara hospital said the 25-year-old, a former Italy under-21 international who was at Udinese until January, was dead on arrival at hospital. The news comes just weeks after Bolton Wanderers midfielder Fabrice Muamba suffered the same problem in an English FA Cup match before making a remarkable recovery. Serie A said in a statement that the federation had postponed all the weekend's professional soccer matches. Morosini, born in Bergamo and a former player with the city's Atalanta team, fell to the ground with no one around him in the 31st minute. He got up looking confused and then collapsed again as medics and then an ambulance rushed on to the field, although media reported that the local council will hold an investigation into whether the ambulance was blocked by the car of a police officer. The Serie B game was abandoned with Livorno leading 2-0. AC Milan was due to host Genoa in Serie A in an earlier kickoff at 1600 GMT and fans were already inside the stadium waiting for the game when the news came through from Pescara. At first Milan said there would be a minute's silence but then the public announcer told the crowd the game would be postponed along with all other Serie A matches this weekend. Marc-Vivien Foe collapsed during Cameroon's 1-0 victory against Colombia in a Confederations Cup match in June 2003 in Lyon, France and died shortly afterwards aged 26. The shock over that high-profile death, one of at least 20 in the last 20 years in professional soccer leagues, led to changes but some believe more needs to be done.
