Ramos and Iniesta stick their tongues out at sudden death

Posted Tuesday, June 05, 2018 by Marca.com

Spain continue to prepare for the 2018 World Cup, yet Sergio Ramos and Andres Iniesta took time out to take part in a promotional feature for the 'stick your tongue out at sudden death' campaign.

It's an issue that remains close to the hearts of all those involved in Spanish football, with both Antonio Puerta and Dani Jarque both suffering shock deaths whilst playing on the pitch.

The promotional picture showed both Ramos and Iniesta with a heart-shaped lollipop, sticking their tongues out with the blue dye from the sweet transferred to their respective tongues.

These lollipops are available for the price of one euro and proceeds go towards the Brugada Foundation against sudden death.

Around 30,000 deaths due to the syndrome occur in Spain every single year, and this effects not just elderly people but youngsters as well.

Funds are allocated to help further research into detecting the risk in people via genetics and the Brugada Foundation was created to investigate the causes of sudden death syndrome in people of all ages.

Iniesta believes that the issue is incredibly important and the research must be supported.

"We must be aware of many issues," he explained.

"This has touched us directly and that's why we're helping the foundation."

These were sentiments that were shared by the Real Madrid defender too.

"As soon as they contacted us, we started working together," Ramos confirmed.

"The idea is fabulous and you have to keep researching in order to make a better world.

"I've been working with the foundation for many years and I'm proud to be able to help people who've had a difficult time."

Football was rocked by sudden death syndrome yet again in 2018 when Fiorentina captain Davide Astori passed away at the age of 31, something that Iniesta has struggled to come to terms with.

"It's complicated to understand what happened, it seems almost inexplicable," he admitted.

"When you see athletes with all the checks and training that we have all season, it's difficult to understand.

"You don't want to live in fear, you don't want to think about such bad things so we must get as much control as possible."