Celebrate Enock Mwepu still being with us if no longer on the pitch
The news about Enock Mwepu being forced into retirement at the age of 24 with a hereditary heart condition is devastating and tremendously sad.
For us Albion supporters, we will always feel cheated over what might have been. We saw both potential and brilliance in Mwepu last season, most notably through the spectacular goals he scored. In particular, his strike at Anfield which deservedly won WAB Goal of the Season 2021-22.
Of course, for him and his family it will be unimaginably worse. They will not only have seen his career ended but also a life-threatening condition revealed in just a couple of weeks. The worry will have been traumatic.
None of us will want to have seen a Christian Eriksen-type situation unfold at the Amex or anywhere else. We see a constant reminder of a similar tragedy every time Joel Veltman steps onto the pitch wearing the 34 shirt, his squad number being a tribute to former Ajax teammate Abdelhak Nouri who lives with brain damage following a training pitch collapse.
In February, Greek player Alexandros Lampis died of a heart attack on the pitch aged just 21. Cases are rare amongst the tens of thousands playing internationally, but tragic when they do occur.
It is always heart-breaking to see a career cut short by injury. Somehow, this hurts more in that it was not an injury sustained in play, but a silent threat that developed suddenly undetected even by all of the state-of-the-art medical testing available to the Albion.
Losing players to transfers – as we have recently with Yves Bissouma and Marc Cucurella – is always difficult. The positives are that you hope they will flourish with their new clubs. That won’t happen now for Enock.
For Mwepu, it might be a career ended at a brutally young age. But it is one he can look back on with pride. He was capped 27 times by Zambia, who he also went onto captain. He reached the pinnacle of world club football by playing in the Premier League, making his nation fiercely and rightly proud.
Attention will inevitably turn to what Brighton do to replace Mwepu. With Jakub Moder still recovering from his ACL injury, Adam Lallana prone to injury and Moises Caicedo in the sights of several of the Big Six for the January window, midfield is an area the club will need to strengthen.
That though is question for the coming weeks. Right now, our thoughts and those of the club must be with this young man and those close to him.
Enock Mwepu will leave with the best of wishes and support of the Albion, Brighton fans and the whole football community. He will be sustained, I hope, by his family and his deep personal faith.
Health must come first, but at 24, what a loss to the game. What a loss to Brighton & Hove Albion.
Enock, we will always wonder what might have been. How high you could have helped the Albion climb. What results The Computer might have generated.
But most important of all, we celebrate the fact you are still with us, if no longer on the pitch wearing the stripes. All the best for the future.
Warren Morgan @WarrenBHAFC
