Pablo Martinez: Chippenham Town defender 'stabilised' after collapsing during game

Pablo Martinez was at EFL side Bristol Rovers until earlier this summer

Chippenham Town manager Gary Horgan says defender Pablo Martinez should make a "full recovery" after collapsing on the pitch during their game against Chelmsford City on Saturday.

Martinez, 21, was taken ill 27 minutes into the National League South match.

The former Wales youth international was taken to hospital in Bristol by ambulance and the game was abandoned.

"Pablo cleared the ball and with no-one else around him just fell to the ground," Horgan said.

"He's gone out in the ambulance and it looks like he's OK at the moment," he added on BBC Radio Wiltshire.

"It's not a good thing to experience, but we're really pleased that Pablo's OK and it looks like at this moment in time, given the early prognosis from the medical teams that have dealt with him and tended to him, that he's going to make a full recovery."

Chippenham said Martinez had been "stabilised" and was "breathing" by the time a decision was made to call off the game, with the Wiltshire club later confirming his condition is "not life-threatening".

A former academy player at West Bromwich Albion, Martinez moved to Bristol Rovers in August 2020.

He played eight times for the club in League One towards the end of the 2020-21 season and featured once in League Two last season.

Horgan says he is unsure whether his side's game on Tuesday at home to Martinez's former club Oxford City should go ahead.

"I don't have the stomach for a game of football on Tuesday right now," he said.

"If it was going Saturday to Saturday, we'd probably be ready and in a frame of mind where we could think about football.

"But to go from Saturday to Tuesday, without us getting together as a group between now and then, would be very difficult.

"At this moment in time I don't think anybody really wants to play football on Tuesday, it's the furthest thing from our minds at the moment."