FAI to seek report on death of boy after football pitch accident

The Football Association of Ireland has expressed its sorrow at the death of a young boy on a soccer pitch in Navan on Sunday.

Lee Lucchesi (10), from Dundalk, was struck by a goalpost on the pitch on the Athboy Road at about 2.15 p.m. He was the son of the footballer, Mr Damien Myles, who was preparing to play in a match when the incident happened.

My Myles' team, Woodview Celtic, was about to play Navan Town in a Division 2 Seniors match.

Bystanders said Lee and some friends were playing at the smaller goalposts on the training pitch when they fell on him, causing critical injury.

He was taken to Our Lady's Hospital in Navan but died shortly afterwards.

Yesterday, Mr Brendan McKenna, spokesman for the FAI, said the association was very upset at the accident. "We are very distressed that such an accident could happen on a football pitch, or indeed anywhere," he said.

Mr McKenna said the FAI would be seeking a report from the local Meath and District League "and we'll see where we go from there". It would also seek a report from the referee, if that was relevant, he said. The match was postponed when the accident happened. Preparations were under way last night for the funeral in Dundalk.

Two years ago, Rhona McLaughlin (12) died when a steel goalpost collapsed and hit her on the head, at a community school pitch in Millstreet, Co Cork. Rhona, from Eglinton, Co Derry had travelled to Millstreet to compete with her pony at the Green Glens arena, when she and some friends went to play at the nearby pitch.