Johana Portillo, center, and her sister, Ana Portillo, hold hands while Dr. Shawn Smith looks on during a news conference Thursday at a hospital in Murray, Utah, held to discuss the condition of Ricardo Portillo, a soccer referee who was punched by a player. The women are his daughters.

MURRAY, Utah — A longtime Utah soccer referee in a coma after being punched by a teenager during a weekend game had been attacked by other angry players before, but he continued refereeing because he loved the game, his family says.

Ricardo Portillo, 46, has swelling in his brain and his recovery is uncertain as he remains in critical condition, Dr. Shawn Smith said Thursday at the Intermountain Medical Center in the Salt Lake City suburb of Murray.

Police say a 17-year-old player in a recreational soccer league punched Portillo on Saturday after the man called a foul on him and issued him a yellow card. The teen has been booked into juvenile detention on suspicion of aggravated assault. Those charges could be amplified if Portillo dies.

Portillo's oldest daughter, 26-year-old Johana Portillo, said at a news conference Thursday that her father has been attacked by other players before — even having his ribs and leg broken.

“People don't know it's a game,” she said. “We're all there to have fun, not to go and kill each other.”

Smith declined to discuss what caused Ricardo Portillo's injuries or divulge his prognosis due to the ongoing police investigation. But Johana Portillo said her father might not survive.

“I know he didn't, he doesn't want to leave us,” she said, crying. “We hope for a miracle that he will be OK.”

Johana Portillo wasn't at the Saturday afternoon game in the Salt Lake City suburb of Taylorsville, but she said she's been told by witnesses and detectives that the player hit her father in the side of the head after he issued the yellow card.

“When he was writing down his notes, he just came out of nowhere and punched him,” she said.

His friends who were there told her Ricardo Portillo seemed fine at first, but then asked to be held because he felt dizzy. They sat him down and he started vomiting blood, triggering his friend to call an ambulance. The referee has been in a coma since Saturday.

Johana Portillo said her father's passion is soccer, and he's been a referee in the recreational league for eight years. Five years ago, a player upset with a call broke his ribs. A few years before that, a player broke his leg, she said. Other referees have been hurt, too.

His daughters begged him to stop refereeing — his second job — but he continued because he loved soccer.