Kevin Campbell died of natural causes - inquest

Kevin Campbell played for Everton for six years in the Premier League

Retired Premier League footballer Kevin Campbell died of natural causes after becoming seriously ill with heart and kidney failure, a coroner has concluded.

The former Everton and Arsenal striker died aged 54 at Manchester Royal Infirmary (MRI) on 15 June last year.

Manchester Coroner's Court heard he was "desperately unwell" when he was admitted to hospital months before his death and had lost more than half of his body weight.

Coroner Zak Golombek found that a delay in the diagnosis of a rare heart infection "did not more than minimally contribute" to his death.

Dr Robert Henney, consultant at the MRI, told the inquest many people "may not have survived to make it into hospital" in his condition.

Mr Campbell, who also played for Nottingham Forest, West Brom and Trabzonspor in Turkey, had been fit and well until about January 2024.

The hearing was told that he had suffered heart and kidney failure, but no underlying cause for his declining health was identified during an initial six-and-a-half week stay in hospital.

He was discharged in March 2024 after "responding well to treatment" but was later readmitted to hospital in May, the inquest heard.

Mr Golombek noted that Mr Campbell had lost more than half of his body weight between the two admissions.

He said that "missed opportunities" to diagnose Mr Campbell with a heart infection known as infective endocarditis had "not more than minimally contributed to his death on the balance of probabilities".

Kevin Campbell won the 1991 league title, FA Cup and European Cup Winners' Cup with Arsenal

Mr Campbell died in June and a provisional cause of death was given as multi-organ failure.

The MRI declared a level 5 patient safety incident to investigate whether a delay in diagnosing the infection could have contributed to his death.

The inquest heard this was later downgraded to a level 2 incident and the hospital concluded his death was "possibly avoidable but not very likely".

Dr Henney said that previous imaging and test results suggested "the infective endocarditis was not present during the first admission."

Dr Colin Cunnington, a consultant cardiologist, told the hearing it was likely Mr Campbell caught the infection between the two admissions, coinciding with the significant weight loss.

Mr Golombek described the medical cause of death as "multi organ failure as a result of infective endocarditis and hospital acquired pneumonia".