Fully vaccinated ESPN analyst and ex-Premier League goalkeeper Shaka Hislop collapsed live on air on Sunday, becoming the latest in an astonishing number of professional athletes to collapse, with many of them dying suddenly, in the last two years.
Speaking live on air to preview the pre-season match between football giants AC Milan and Real Madrid at the Rose Bowl in Los Angeles, Hislop had a slight smile on his face as he began to wobble before collapsing forward towards his long-time ESPN colleague Dan Thomas.
The video footage reveals Thomas very quickly called for help in the disturbing moment caught on live television.
Prayers up for Shaka Hislop💙 pic.twitter.com/4h7i5SBYB1
— CarefreeLewisG🇪🇹👉🏾 (@CarefreeLewisG) July 24, 2023
Naturally there was immediate concern for Hislop, a 54-year-old in good health, who represented both England and Trinidad and Tobago at international level in his long career as a goalkeeper.
In August 2021, Hislop used his influence to urge all football fans to get vaccinated with the experimental Covid jabs.
During the halftime break, a flustered but relieved looking Thomas came back on air to allay any fears and assure viewers that Hislop was recovering behind the scenes.
“Halftime then here at the Rose Bowl, it’s AC Milan 2, Real Madrid nil. But that of course very much secondary to what happened ahead of the game,” Thomas said.
“Obviously my mate Shaka’s not here, but as it stands it’s good news.
“He’s conscious, he’s talking, I think he’s a little embarrassed about it all, he’s apologised profusely. Not a man who likes people to make a fuss of him.
“Obviously far too early to make any sort of diagnosis, but the important thing is that Shaka’s conscious and we spoke to his family as well.
“We spoke to his wife and things are looking OK. Silly Shaka. Thank you for all your love and as it stands, it looks like he’ll be all right.”
The former Southampton playmaker Matt Le Tissier quote-tweeted a post highlighting Hislop’s collapse as “not normal”. Le Tissier wrote on Monday morning: “I really hope he’s just fainted and best wishes for a speedy recovery.”
Late on Sunday evening, the 54-year-old fanatic referenced one of his own tweets from June 2021, which said: “If you think the Covid propaganda has been bad wait til you see the climate change stuff they’ve got planned.”
“How did I know,” asked Le Tissier in his update, clearly confident his conspiracies were on the money. “Not far right just right so far.”