MANCHESTER CITY January signing Claudio Echeverri suffered a huge heart scare while playing for River Plate.
The wonderkid signed for City in a £12.5m deal last month before returning to the Argentine outfit on loan for the rest of the calendar year.
Echeverri, 18, also represents Argentina at youth level and suffered a scare while playing for the Under-23s side in an Olympic qualifying match.
The midfielder initially felt a pain in his chest in the first half and went down before receiving treatment.
Echeverri received the green light to continue but only lasted until the 64th minute before being substituted.
The youngster is set to meet with club doctors to diagnose the issue, which affected his breathing.
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Echeverri said after the match: “I had a very strong pain in my chest, I couldn’t breathe well and I was very scared.
“I jumped down to [catch] the air and then, thank God, it went away a little.
“Afterwards I continued well. I’m going to talk to the doctors anyway, to see what it is. Something like this had never happened to me, I felt very scared. I’m fine, thank God.”
A former captain of Argentina’s under-17 side, Echeverri is currently on international duty with the under-23s in South American Olympic qualifying.
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He has made six appearances for River Plate, registering one assist for his boyhood club.
Chelsea and Barcelona were previously linked with a move for the teen, who has been dubbed “the next Lionel Messi”.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk