![\"Billy](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/8c3b44fb-760c-4f00-a26f-93979d9f3726.jpg\")
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Billy Vigar in action for the Arsenal U21s in 2023. Photo: David Price\/Arsenal FC via Getty Images<\/p>\n
Former Arsenal starlet Billy Vigar has been placed in an induced coma after reportedly colliding with a concrete wall during a match, which has left him with a \u201csignificant brain injury\u201d.<\/p>\n
The striker, now playing for Chichester City in the Isthmian League Premier Division, endured the sickening collision in Saturday\u2019s game against Wingate and Finchley whilst attempting to prevent the ball from crossing the touchline.<\/p>\n
The match was said to have been halted as an ambulance and air ambulance arrived to treat the 21-year-old, before the clash was abandoned after 13 minutes.<\/p>\n
Chichester provided an update on Vigar\u2019s condition on Monday night, writing in a club statement: \u201cBilly received a significant brain injury and is currently in an induced coma in intensive care receiving the best possible treatment.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is too early to say what the outcome will be and even if things go well, there will be a long road to recovery ahead. Love from the whole of the CCFC family Billy.\u201d<\/p>\n
The incident occurred almost three years after the Professional Footballers\u2019 Association demanded for safety rules around advertising boards to be \u201cfully reviewed\u201d, something which was sparked by a similar injury suffered by former Bath City striker Alex Fletcher.<\/p>\n
Fletcher was forced into retirement at the age of just 25 last year as a result of serious injuries sustained when he careened into a concrete-backed advertising hoarding in November 2022, and has been among those to offer their support to Vigar.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy heart breaks reading this terrible news,\u201d wrote Fletcher, who required emergency brain surgery after also being placed in an induced coma. \u201cSending all the love, strength and best wishes to the Vigar family for healing in time. You\u2019ve got this Billy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vigar was an academy graduate at Hale End and featured prominently for Arsenal\u2019s under-18 and under-21 sides before his exit in the summer of 2024, having never made a senior appearance.<\/p>\n
He joined Chichester this summer after spells in Sussex football with Hastings and Eastbourne Borough, having scored his first senior goal at the latter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Billy Vigar in action for the Arsenal U21s in 2023. Photo: David Price\/Arsenal FC via Getty Images Former…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":39062,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[15133,61,60,112],"class_list":["post-39061","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-arsenal","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39061","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39061"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39061\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}