Soccer Player Scores, Dies After Celebratory Flip

23-year-old Peter Biaksangzuala suffered severe spinal injury in Indian game
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 20, 2014 12:17 PM CDT
Soccer Player Dies After Celebratory Flip
Peter Biaksangzuala tragically died while celebrating a soccer goal.   (Shutterstock)

A 23-year-old Indian soccer player excited over a goal he had just scored died after he did a celebratory flip in the air, landed badly, and suffered a spinal injury, the AP reports. "A CT Scan was done right after he was taken to the hospital, and the result showed that the injury inflicted on the spinal cord was quite serious," the Mizoram Premier League posted on its Facebook page regarding Peter Biaksangzuala's fatal injury. "The doctors did their best to help him fight for his life." Biaksangzuala scored the game-tying goal for his Bethlehem Vengthlang FC team in the 62nd minute of Tuesday's game, Deadspin reports. He then "cartwheeled into a backflip," landed wrong, and stopped moving.

He was in ICU for five days and died yesterday. He's not the first athlete to get hurt or killed while celebrating a score, as Bleacher Report notes, but that doesn't take away the shock or pain his team feels. "Peter was a lad with good manner who always maintained his discipline on and off the [field]," his coach says in the Facebook post. "I don't think there are many like him." The post adds that "Peter had a good heart. He donated his eyes for a suffering blind person and he had that desire to help him or her see the world and lead and enjoy a normal life." (A new concern for soccer players: whether artificial turf causes cancer.)

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