When tragedy strikes, it leaves a deep void of questions and sorrow that can never be adequately filled. Unfortunate too, is the fact that those who have the answers are no longer here to provide clarity and comfort because all that remains are stories that can be difficult to stomach, but serve as a reminder of what occurred.

Süper Lig's Gaziantep FC's Joao Figueiredo, Marko Jevtovic, Matej Hanousek, Angelo Sagal and Lazar Markovic, Kasımpaşa's Stephane Bahoken and Bengali-Fode Koita, Adana Demirspor's Fredrik Gulbrandsen and TFF 1. Lig's Gençlerbirliği's Gabriel Torje by a stroke of luck could live to tell the tale about their harrowing experiences after the Kahramanmaraş earthquake.

Speaking to the Portuguese press, Figueiredo said: "I am in Antalya right now. Taking one more day off saved me. My wife is staying in Brazil because she has a new baby. I felt the earthquake even in Antalya."

Markovic said: "God saved us, I feel sad when I read about what happened in Türkiye and other cities. Due to the earthquake, Türkiye literally stopped. We expect them to let us know how to proceed."

In a Gaziantep FK jersey, Jevtovic said: "We are fine, but we are getting information that some players have died. Most of the team was on leave and were in different cities. However, there is no good news from Hatayspor."

Gabriel Torje, who issued a statement to the Romanian press, said: "I am in Ankara. But even we felt the earthquake. It is a great tragedy, do you understand? There are many deaths, many missing people."

Speaking to the Czech press, still in shock Matej Hanousek said: "It was like hell broke loose in the city. The earthquake caught us at a very bad hour, it was incredibly scary. I'm not sure if it was the earthquake that woke me up or my wife jumping out of bed and running after my son. It's incredibly cold here. Everything in the house fell on the floor. The bed kept moving. Walls cracked and plasters fell on our heads. Imagine the worst turbulence you can experience on a plane and put this in your bedroom. It was horrible. I never want to experience what I experienced tonight. All the players and I were called to the training center where the bus was parked. We sat on a bus in the middle of nowhere and we waited to see what would happen. No one in Türkiye even thinks about sports or football anymore."

Speaking to the Chilean press, Sagal said: "It was very scary. It was 4 O'Clock in the morning and we were sleeping. We got up immediately. I took my wife and children. We stood at the doorstep. What happened in Chile in 2010? I felt very different. It started calmly, but then it got worse. I felt that the house was moving a lot. My 4-year-old son said that a monster carried the house. All the streets are filled with snow. So it's hard to go out. There are aftershocks."

Kasımpaşa Cameroonian forward Stephane Bahoken spoke to Le Parisien in France said: "The hotel started shaking at around 4 a.m. in the morning. I was sleeping. I woke up with my bed shaking. The cupboards and windows in my room started to break. The earthquake started to increase in intensity every second. It must have taken around a minute, but it felt like five, six minutes to me. We were very lucky as our hotel was earthquake resistant. I hugged my duvet on my bed and waited for the earthquake to end. Then I packed all my things and left the hotel with my teammates. Some of them left the hotel barefoot. When we got in front of the hotel, it was destroyed. I saw the buildings and thought that they could fall into our hotel. We could really die in this earthquake. We survived death by a whisker."

Adana Demirspor's 30-year-old Norwegian player Gulbrandsen stated: "I experienced something traumatizing and surreal. I am fine, my colleagues are fine, but my mind is always with those who remained. I live on the 14th floor and I thought I was going to die. There was so much destruction. I was asleep and suddenly I woke up with a shaking. The shaking started and got stronger. As soon as I was moving to get out of bed, I fell out of bed. I wanted to get up, but it was not possible. After the earthquake ended, with a survival instinct, I quickly took a few clothes with me and went down 14 floors. Fortunately, nothing happened to the building I live in."

Borja Sainz, who plays for Giresunspor spoke to the Spanish press saying: "I woke up on Monday with a message from my family in Spain. Then we felt an earthquake at noon. The shaking of the TV, the beds, the lamp. You are afraid because you don't know how to react. Things got even weirder when I saw the news. It's a situation where you don't know how to react. But I'm fine, the coach and my friends are fine. I'm thinking of returning home as soon as possible to calm down. We played there two weeks ago, and now it's an earthquake zone. There are football players missing and not heard from. I hope God helps bring them to safety. It's total chaos. Nobody expected it."

Guinean player Fode Koita told the French newspaper L'Equipe about his experiences. "I fell out of bed with the force of the earthquake. This brutal awakening made me panic. Because I couldn't understand what was happening at first. I saw that every object in the room was moving and I realized that there was an earthquake. The two minutes I experienced passed like an hour. I knew I had to get out as soon as possible. However, I felt a strong aftershock right after the big earthquake. Luckily, the building we were in was really solid and didn't collapse. We descended quickly and took shelter in the bus. It was very cold. There were children who were cold. They were not dressed properly because they had rushed downstairs," he said.