Police issue further update in case after ice hockey player died from slash to throat during game
Police have issued another update following the death of ice hockey player Adam Johnson.
The 29-year-old died on 28 October last year after playing for the Nottingham Panthers against the Sheffield Steelers.
Johnson was hit in the neck by an opponent's skate and died in hospital afterwards, with a post-mortem confirming that a neck injury had been the cause of his death.
In November, a man had been arrested on suspicion of manslaughter and then bailed by South Yorkshire Police.
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They recently released a statement providing an update on the case and said that the man, who has not been named, has had his term of bail extended until 26 June this year.
They said: "On 14 November 2023, a man was arrested on suspicion of manslaughter. He was later bailed.
"Today he has been further re-bailed until 26 June 2024.
"Adam’s loved ones remain at the forefront of our minds as this complex investigation continues."
Last month, they had previously updated people as to this man who had been arrested and re-bailed until 14 May, where they had once again offered their thoughts to the loved ones of the American ice hockey player.
In January, Sheffield's senior coroner Tanyka Rawden announced that her investigation would be suspended until the police had run their course on the case.
A report from her had warned of potential future deaths in ice hockey if neck protection was not introduced into the sport.
Victor Bjorkung, one of Johnson's teammates, told the BBC it was a 'freak accident' that he thinks about every day.
He said: "I do get a lot of flashbacks and they’re not very pleasant flashbacks.
"It feels unreal. Like it feels like it couldn’t have happened. But, obviously, it did.
"I do think about it every day, that’s something that’s going to stick with me for the rest of my life."
Bjorkung said he'd once been 'lucky' that a cut he'd sustained on his leg had missed an artery and Johnson's teammate discussed being on the rink in the moment.
He said: "The people that were on the ice and the people in the stand, they know that no-one wants to do something like this.
"And it’s such a freak accident. And it’s so fast. You can watch the video. You can zoom in and you can slow it down.
"You can do all these things. And it’s so easy to sit in the stands and say: ‘Well he did that and he did this,’ but, if you watch it in real time, you know it’s too fast to judge."
Joe Harker