A 23-year-old defender from a lower-league football club has become the second Belgian player to die of cardiac arrest in less than two weeks.

Antwerp-based team Beerschot-Wilrijk said Tim Nicot died after collapsing during a match last week.

He was taken to the Antwerp university hospital, where he had been kept in an artificial coma.

In April, Gregory Mertens, a 24-year-old defender from Lokeren, also died from cardiac arrest during a reserve-team match.

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