A 45-year-old man from Għargħur was in a critical condition last night after he was hit by a goalpost during a fund-raising football game at a ground in Great Siege Road, Floriana, yesterday afternoon.

The police said the man was injured when he was hit by a hard object at about 4 p.m.

An ambulance rushed the injured man to Mater Dei Hospital, where it was found that his injuries were life-threatening.

Magistrate Joseph Apap Bologna is holding an inquiry.

The incident is similar to a fatal incident in October 2003, when Adrian Borg, a 14-year-old student from Żurrieq, was killed when a goalpost toppled over on to him.

At the time the boy was taking part in a football game in the grounds of St Francis of Assisi School (formerly Umberto Calosso) in Ħamrun. The boy had suffered head and facial injuries in the accident.

Goal posts are usually made of thick metal.

Such incidents are not exclusive to Malta, as a similar case reported in the UK’s Mail on Sunday shows.

In this incident, a boy of 12 was killed in a freak accident when a goalpost at a village football pitch fell on him in July last year.

Football-mad Casey Breese was having a kick-around with friends when the tragedy happened on the council-owned recreation ground in the village of Caersws, near Newtown in mid-Wales.

He was taken to hospital, but died soon after.