A teenage girl has died after collapsing on a football pitch during a GAA match in Wexford.
The young woman aged 16, was playing a match for Taghmon Camross GAA Club in the Minor Division 6 Ladies Football Shield Final, when she suddenly collapsed on the pitch.
Eyewitnesses have reported that there was a clash of heads between two other players, which caught the attention of people on the sidelines, before it was noticed that the young girl had collapsed at the other end of the pitch.
Medical assistance was called immediately, as people ran onto the pitch to help her.
According to reports in local media outlet, the Wexford People, one eye witness said: “They started chest compressions on her,” while adding. “I’ll never forget it".
Following several minutes of performing chest compressions, an advanced paramedic then arrived on scene, with an ambulance arriving five minutes after that. A defibrillator was then used several times on the teenager, before she was lifted onto the back of an ambulance, before being taken to hospital.
The young girl's understandably distraught team mates were taken to the dressing rooms. They stayed back at the club as they anxiously waited for an update, with their coaches having to subsequently deliver the devastating news that she had died in hospital.
It was also reported that the young girl had an underlying medical condition they were unaware of, and described her as "a really talented girl". (All quotes according to the Wexford People).
Taghmon Camross GAA Club and the wider Wexford GAA community have been left in in mourning following this tragic news.
Following this, the club posted this message on their Facebook page, where they said that the young girl's name was Aoibheann.
The 16 year old was also known for her achievements as a precocious soccer talent, having lined out for All Blacks AFC and Wexford FC.
A few weeks earlier, she played a key role in a Wexford side winning the FAI Women's Under 19 Inter-League title.
This incident has left Taghmon Camross GAA Club and the wider Wexford GAA community in mourning. The entire soccer club of Wexford FC and the wider community have been rallying behind the young girl's family as they come to terms with this unimaginably devastating loss.
