FAREWELL, MY LOVE: A pregnant Mar Roldan (above) follows the funeral procession of boyfriend Antonio Puerta at Sanchez Pizjuan Stadium. Sevilla fans remember their hero with candles and tears. -- PHOTO: REUTERS, AFP

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The 22-year-old died on Tuesday, three days after suffering a heart attack during the club's opening match of the Spanish Primera Liga.

Just hours after his death, the League Cup tie between Leicester and Nottingham Forest in England was abandoned after Clive Clarke, the Leicester defender on loan from Sunderland, collapsed in the dressing room at half-time.

The 27-year-old's heart stopped twice and paramedics had to use a defibrillator before the Irishman was taken to hospital, where he was reported to be 'stable'.

'I think football is secondary to human issues,' Mark Arthur, the Forest chief executive, said on stopping the match, which his team were leading 1-0.

Sevilla's Champions League qualifier against AEK Athens on Tuesday was also postponed to Monday, although their European Super Cup game against AC Milan is set to go ahead tomorrow.

At the side of Puerta's coffin at the Sanchez Pizjuan Stadium were the trophies which he helped the club win, including last season's Uefa Cup.

His family, including his girlfriend Mar, who is seven months pregnant, held a vigil.

In an editorial, top-selling daily newspaper El Pais said Puerta's death 'raised questions about the demands of professional sports'.

Sevilla had scheduled four 'high-level' matches in just four days, it said.

Puerta fell to the turf 35 minutes into the game at home to Getafe. He was able to walk off the pitch, but collapsed again in the changing room and was given cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

Comfortable in defence or midfield, he was a youth product who made one appearance for Spain and was part of the Sevilla side who won successive Uefa Cups.

Medical experts said that the collapse was due to a weakness in the right ventricle of the player's heart. This can cause the heart to skip a beat or beat irregularly.

They said that even though the player was reported to have fainted on two previous occasions, the problem was extremely difficult to detect and was unlikely to show up in medical tests.

REUTERS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE