The New Year’s Day football game was cut short for Philadelphia Eagles defensive end Josh Sweat.
During the Eagles’ face-off against their rivals, the New Orleans Saints, the professional athlete was carted off the field and taken to a nearby hospital after receiving a neck injury during a collision in the first quarter.
“Eagles DE Josh Sweat has been transported to a local hospital with a neck injury for precautionary reasons,” the Philadelphia Eagles said in a Twitter statement on Jan. 1. “He has movement in all extremities.”
According to NBC Sports, after Sweat tackled Saints fullback, Adam Prentice, headfirst at the end of a third-down conversion, he didn’t get up from the ground. Medical personnel then attended to Sweat following the collision and stayed on the field for several minutes before moving him onto a stretcher and lifting him off the field.
ESPN reported that the Eagles team rushed by the 25-year-old’s side to show their support for him.