Michel Platini has been taken to hospital in Johannesburg after collapsing in a restaurant this evening. It had initially been feared that the Uefa president had suffered a heart attack. However, Uefa sources said he had fainted, having been suffering from flu for the past few days, and was in no danger.
Platini was dining at La Pagalle restaurant in Sandton when he keeled over at the table, knocking over a chair. He was understood to be conscious but was kept in the Morningside Medi-Clinic, a private hospital, overnight for observation.
The 55-year-old fell to the floor at around 8.15pm UK time leaving his dining companions, who included the former Liverpool manager Gérard Houllier and former Scotland coach Andy Roxburgh, calling for the emergency services.
Platini, the former France and Juventus midfielder, is a heavy smoker but had appeared in good health. He was taken to hospital accompanied by Houllier and the long-standing Fifa media officer, Alain Leblang, and was later visited by the Fifa president, Sepp Blatter. Houllier suffered a heart problem in 2001, which kept him out of the game for six months.
The Uefa official William Gaillard said: "He is fine. He had been suffering from a cold and a bit of flu and he fainted before eating in a restaurant. He is still in hospital now undergoing tests but he is conscious and is fine. It is not true that he has had a heart attack."
Gaillard admitted he had not spoken directly to Platini but had received the information from a Uefa colleague, who had accompanied the Frenchman to the restaurant. He added that the test results had shown up nothing serious.
"I talked to his assistant who was with him and it seems [he was] just fainting because he has a cold and a fever," he said. "All the preliminary exams are negative. He's conscious, he's fine. They may carry out more tests because, when a well-known person faints, they normally do that but I've been told not to worry. It's nothing serious."
On reports that Platini had suffered a heart attack, Gaillard added: "When people faint, people imagine the worst. That's a normal human reaction. I talked to someone who told me not to worry. Nothing serious. These things happen.
"It's cold there. A lot of people have a cold, the flu, they have a fever. That could explain it."
Gaillard said he did not know whether Platini would be kept in hospital longer than overnight.
According to witnesses, Houllier in particular appeared concerned as paramedics attended to Platini, having suffered a heart problem himself earlier in his career.
In October 2001, after falling ill at half-time in Liverpool's Premier League match with Leeds United, the Frenchman was taken to hospital for an emergency operation when he suffered a dissected aorta. The condition kept him out of the game for six months.
