Revealed: Roma's Evan Ndicka may have suffered collapse as a result of heavy challenge in abandoned Udinese clash

The Ivory Coast international suffered the health scare during his outing at the Bluenergy Stadium on Sunday. The 24-year-old went down off the ball in the 72nd minute, leading to play being halted as he was tended to on the field.

Ndicka was stretchered off and taken to hospital, where he spent the night. The game that he was forced to leave early was abandoned, with the decision taken not to play through to the finish following the frightening medical emergency.

The latest updates on Ndicka say that he is stable, with photos emerging of him looking positive in hospital after being visited by concerned team-mates and coaching staff. He has been kept in for further tests, but a heart attack has been ruled out. Instead, Gazzetta dello Sport reports that the chest pains Ndicka suffered may have been the result of a coming together with Lorenzo Lucca in the 38th minute of Roma’s latest outing. That painful blow could have caused a pulmonary compression, which in turn led to fibrillations and the Ivorian struggling to breathe.

Ndicka will be given the necessary time to recover, and given the nature of the issue his season may well be over as we enter the run in. In the defender's absence, Roma face AC Milan on Thursday in the return leg of their all-Italian Europa League quarter-final, leading 1-0 on aggregate.