A young footballer has died after collapsing at a Whyteleafe match last night.

Junior Dian, 24, fell unconscious while playing for Tonbridge Angels in a pre-season friendly at Church Road. 

Club physios rushed on to the pitch and fought to save the player before paramedics arrived and took him to St George's Hospital, Tooting, where he died in the early hours of this morning.

The match, in which Mr Dian was playing as a triallist for Tonbridge, was abandoned.

Steve Churcher, chairman of Tonbridge Angels said: "This is devastating news and our only crumb of comfort is that Junior lost his life doing something he obviously enjoyed so much. All our thoughts and sympathies are with his family."

Mr Dian had been playing in defence for the Ryman Premier League side when he collapsed about 20 minutes into the second half.

Whyteleafe manager John Fowler said: "He fell to the ground and one of our forwards went over and asked if he was OK. He tried to sit up and said, ''Yeah I'm fine, I'll get up in a sec'.

"Then he's collapsed again and his eyes sort of rolled and that's when our lad signalled to the bench to call the physio on. 

"Both the physios ran on and proceeded to do chest compression and mouth-to-mouth - and I must say reacted really quickly and they were excellent in what they've done - and that was about a 15 minute process until the ambulance has turned up."

Paramedics worked on Mr Dian on the pitch for about 15 minutes before taking him to hospital, where he was pronounced dead at about 1am.

Fellow players paid tribute to Mr Dian this morning.

Tonbridge defender Sonny Miles tweeted: "Worst moment in football last night, life's just not fair sometimes, thoughts are with family and friends of junior dian". 

Whyteleafe's players were stunned by the footballer's death, their manager said.

Mr Fowler said: "He is only 23 and all these guys do keep themselves in shape. They are athletes in their own right and you don't expect it. You hear about it in other games, you don't expect it in your own game.

"Everyone is in a bit of shock. We all watched the thing play out, with the physios working on him on the pitch. Everyone was very quiet.

"We'll have a chat with them at training on Thursday and offer our support and see what we can do for them."

He said the club may consider bringing in heart screening to in a bid to prevent similar tragedies in the future.