Black Stars midfielder Isaac Sackey's Czech team-mate Josef Sural from Turkey’s top tier Aytemiz Alanyaspor was killed after a minibus carrying players from the club crashed while returning from an away match, the club said on Monday.
Sural, a striker for Alanyaspor and the Czech national team, died at the hospital where he, the Ghana international and five of their teammates were taken after the crash.
The 28-year-old died in hospital where he had been undergoing emergency surgery.
Among the injured are former England international Steven Caulker and ex-Newcastle United striker Papiss Cisse.
The other four players were identified as Djalma Campos, Baiano, Welinton and Isaac Sackey.
Sural was with Alanyaspor teammates on their way home from a game in the country’s top tier football league when their vehicle was involved in the collision.
They are believed to have hired a VIP private minibus to take them home from their 1-1 match against Kayserispor, central Turkey.
The team’s president Hasan Cavusoglu said ‘our pain is huge’ as he confirmed Sural’s death.
He said the driver may have fallen asleep at the wheel and a second driver was also asleep.
He said: ‘According to the information I received from our police chief, despite there being two drivers on the vehicle, both were asleep.’ The six other players are said to be in a stable condition.
Seven Alanyaspor players had rented a VIP minibus to return from the club’s 1-1 draw against Kayserispor on Sunday and the bus crashed some 5 km (3.1 miles) from the southern coastal town of Alanya, Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency said.
The rest of the club’s players and staff had returned with the team bus or on their own, Anadolu said, adding that the driver of the VIP bus had been detained following the accident and an investigation had been launched.
Club Chairman Hasan Cavusoglu was quoted as saying the driver had fallen asleep behind the wheel of the minibus. A second driver was asleep at the time.
“According to information I received from our police chief, despite there being two drivers on the vehicle, they were both asleep. The crash happened as a result of them both being asleep,” Anadolu quoted Cavusoglu as saying.
He said the other six players injured in the crash were not in critical condition.