A GRIEVING couple described how they battled in vain to save their son, who collapsed after pre-season football training in scorching temperatures.

Ben Hall, 18, who appeared to be at the peak of fitness as he reported for the session with a Sunday league pub team, collapsed at home and later died after playing in temperatures of about 80 degrees.

His mother Liz, a nurse, and father Doug, an oil company engineer, tried to revive him as he lay on their living room floor.

Paramedics arrived and took Ben to Sunderland's Royal Hospital, where his mother works in the intensive care unit.

Doctors tried for an hour-and-a-half to save him.

Yesterday, Mr and Mrs Hall were being comforted by family and friends at their home in Houghton-le-Spring, Wearside.

The couple, who have an eight-year-old son Luke, are awaiting results of a post mortem examination which will show what caused Ben's death.

Mr Hall, 45, said: "We're devastated, everyone is, all the family, his mates and their families.

"Ben had never been ill in his life. He was a fit and healthy lad and was football daft."

On Sunday morning, Ben had trained with the football team at The Mill public house in Houghton-le-Spring.

But when he returned home, he complained of a shortness of breath which he blamed on the heat.

Ben was a former pupil of Houghton-le-Spring's Kepier School and St Aidan's RC School, in Sunderland.