ROME: Manuel Almunia, the 37-year-old former Arsenal goalkeeper, has been forced to retire by a heart condition.

The Spaniard had left Watford expecting to join Cagliari in Italy’s Serie A when a routine medical detected a potentially fatal genetic heart disorder.

Almunia, who played 175 times for Arsenal, suffers from apical hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a disease of the heart tissue which causes it to thicken and can lead to sudden death.

The goalkeeper spent eight years with Arsenal after turning professional originally with home-town Osasuna in 1999 and moving on to Celta Vigo before transferring to north London in 2004.

He appeared as a substitute goalkeeper in the first half of the 2006 Champions League final against Barcelona after Jens Lehmann had been sent off. Arsenal lost 2-1.

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