Columbia, Mo. ? The death of University of Missouri football player Aaron O’Neal was not caused by infection, trauma or foul play, the Boone County medical examiner said Thursday, but complete autopsy results won’t be available for weeks, pending further tests.

Medical examiner Valerio Rao released her preliminary findings a day after telling a local television station that Missouri officials told her to stay away from a news conference she was scheduled to attend Wednesday. University spokeswoman Mary Jo Banken issued a statement Thursday attempting to clarify the situation.

“We regret any misunderstanding with the Boone County medical examiner regarding yesterday’s news conference,” Banken said.

After consulting with the Missouri athletic department, Banken asked Rao to stay home because Coach Gary Pinkel wanted to “focus on Aaron O’Neal’s family and his players,” she said.

At an emotional news conference attended by 14 of O’Neal’s teammates, Pinkel broke down several times trying to explain the loss. He compared his player’s death to the loss of his own child.

“This is just a devastating situation,” Pinkel said. “He was a player who just had a great future.”

Thursday, the front gate of Memorial Stadium was adorned with flowers, cards, banners and other memorials for O’Neal, 19, a redshirt freshman from suburban St. Louis who collapsed Tuesday at the end of an hourlong voluntary workout

Pinkel said he expected the team would organize a Columbia memorial service for the player, but no details were available Thursday. Friends and family in St. Louis also wanted a memorial service there in addition to the funeral, said Chad Moller, a Missouri athletics department spokesman.

O’Neal’s death again has cast the spotlight on summer football workouts – programs that by NCAA rules are not overseen by coaches, but rather by strength and conditioning directors and athletic trainers.

The NCAA passed a series of stringent regulations governing summer workouts after the deaths of three Division One football players in the summer of 2001, including a requirement that those supervising the workouts be trained and certified in CPR and first aid techniques.

O’Neal’s death suggests that college athletics should take a closer look at such preseason workouts, said Bryan Smith, a former team doctor for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill who spent six years as chairman of an NCAA committee on sports safety.

“Enough of these incidents have taken place that warrant further investigation by the NCAA,” said Smith, now a medical consultant to the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Asked whether strength coaches and trainers could have done more to help O’Neal or more quickly identify potential health problems on Tuesday, Pinkel stood by his staff.

“I believe in them 100 percent,” he said.

The school’s strength coach, Pat Ivey, supervised Tuesday’s workout at Faurot Field. Ivey and other members of the strength and conditioning staff attended Wednesday’s news conference but declined to answer questions afterward.