BELGRADE, Reuter: The doctor of Yugoslay soccer club Red Star Belgrade described on Friday how he had to break the jaw of Ac Nilan Winger Roberto Donadoni to free his tongue from his throat and stop him from dying.
Doandoni crashed into Red Star defender Goran Vasi jumped for a high ball in the 43rd minute of the replayed European cup second leg match on Thursday.
After their aerial collision Vasilijevie quickly recovered, but Donadoni was knocked unconscious. Players of both teams waved frantically to the sidelines for medical help.
“I saw immediately he was not breathing. His tongue was stuck and he would be dead in a minute, Red Star doctor Brahislav. Nesovic told Reuters “I had no choice but to break his jaw with my hands and release his tongue,
“If a person has a heavy shock, suffocation is often an immediate danger. I tried to free his tongue but it wouldn’t soften. Then just yanked his jaw apart with sheer brute force and pulled the tongue out.”
Donadoni regained consciousness at just that moment. But his whole body started to thrash around like a shot animal.
“It was horrible,” said Red Star International Refik Sadanadzovic, who spends four days in a coma after a similar accident last year, “I was so shocked I only wanted to go somewhere else.”
Donadoni was taken to Belgrade’s neurosurgical hospital and was declared stable with concussions, a broken jaw and pulled neck muscles.
Article extracted from this publication >> November 25, 1988
