Romania head coach Mircea Lucescu is in a “stable condition” in hospital in Bucharest after being falling sick at the national team’s training base on Sunday.
The 80-year-old head coach, who would have been the oldest manager at a World Cup had Romania qualified for this summer’s finals, received first aid from members of the national team’s medical staff before being taken to hospital, the Romanian Football Federation said in a statement.
He is receiving treatment at Bucharest’s Emergency University Hospital, where he is “undergoing diagnostic investigations and therapeutic interventions necessary to stabilize his heart rhythm”, the statement said.
Lucescu oversaw Romania’s World Cup playoff 0-1 defeat to Turkey on Thursday in Istanbul and had been preparing the team for Tuesday’s friendly match away to Slovakia in Bratislava.
He will remain hospitalized and receive special monitoring “to eliminate any risk”. The match with Slovakia will be overseen by assistant coach Ionel Gane.
“I feel better now, I’ve completely recovered but I need some investigations, which is why I’m staying in hospital,” he said.
Lucescu told The Guardian last week that he had been admitted to hospital on three occasions since December, without disclosing the health reasons. “I can’t leave like a coward,” Lucescu said when asked on his future ahead of the playoff loss to Turkey. “We must believe in our chance to qualify.”
It is the second time he has been Romania’s manager, which he first coached between 1981 and 1985. His 45-year managerial career has spanned 1,544 matches in total.
Lucescu, who has managed Italian club Inter, Zenit Saint Petersburg of Russia and Turkish teams Galatasaray and Besiktas, spent 12 years in charge of Ukrainian side Shakhtar Donetsk, with whom he won eight league titles.
