Zambian referee Janny Sikazwe, who prematurely ended a game at the ongoing AFCON said that he almost died from heatstroke while officiating the said match.
Sikazwe topped the trends after ending a game between Mali and Tunisia before 90 minutes.
“I have seen people going for duties outside the country and come back in a casket,’ he told reporters after arriving back in Zambia,” he is reported to have said.
“I was very close to coming back like that. I was lucky I didn’t go into a coma. It would have been a very different story.
“The doctors told me my body was not cooling down. It would have been just a little time before [I would have gone] into a coma, and that would have been the end. I think God told me to end the match. He saved me.”
The match saw officials make series of contentious decisions as Mali recorded a 1-0 win over the North African side during the group stages.
Sikazwe went through the worst last 10 minutes of his career when he whistled for full time after just 85 minutes had been played.
That wasnt the end of the drama as after resuming he game, the Zambian official went ahead to controversially send off Mali’s El Bilal Toure for what looked like a yellow card offence.He then shocked the Tunisian coach when he again in the 89th minute blew the final whistle.
According to him, the weather was burning in Cameroon that he couldn’t handle it while refereeing the game.
“The weather was so hot, and the humidity was about 85 per cent. After the warm-up I felt the [conditions] were something else. We were trying to drink water but you could not feel the water quenching you – nothing.
“But we [match officials] believe we are soldiers and we go and fight. Everything I was putting on was hot. Even the communication equipment, I wanted to throw it away. It was so hot,” Sikazwe continued.