KARACHI: Former Pakistan U-23 midfielder Mohammad Tauseef Ahmed passed away on Monday night after a brief illness. He was 24.

Tauseef, who represented Wapda and Lyallpur FC in the Pakistan Premier Football League (PPFL), was taken to a hospital in his hometown of Faisalabad after suffering from high fever and he succumbed to his illness, local football news portal www.FootballPakistan.com reported.

“Tauseef was a great lad who worked very hard and was a pleasure to coach,” former England footballer Graham Roberts, who came for a two-month coaching stint in 2010, told Dawn via social media website Twitter on Tuesday. “He was skilful and very competitive. He gave his all when he played.”

Having featured for Pakistan in the 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou and the qualifier against Malaysia for the 2012 London Olympics, Tauseef’s rise was curtailed following an anterior cruciate ligament injury shortly afterwards. A midfielder who could also play in defence, Tauseef was also picked up for Pakistan’s 2018 World Cup qualifier against Yemen in 2015 and also for a friendly against Afghanistan earlier that year. However, he never made an appearance for the senior side.

Published in Dawn, March 1st, 2017