Zambia Player Dies On Birthday    

Former Zambia U-17 star, Changwe Kalale, has passed away in Lusaka on his birthday, three years after being involved in a bus crash that left him paralysed.

According to the Lusaka Times, the ex-midfielder passed away at the University Teaching Hospital on Sunday morning.

“Changwe died on Sunday morning around 09:00 hours,” his father, Ben Kalale, told the Lusaka Times. “[The] funeral is at our home in Chambishi on the Copperbelt.”

Andrew Kamanga, the President of the Zambian Football Federation, has also acknowledged the youngster’s passing.

“It is with a heavy heart that we receive the passing on of a gifted player whose career was cut short through a terrible accident that confined him to a wheelchair,” he said, as per the LT.

Kalale’s progress was halted in December 2014 when a bus he was travelling on to join up with the national side crashed.

Four people died in the accident, including the bus driver, while Kalale’s fellow players Satchmo Chakawa and Nyambe Mulenga were also involved.

Kalale had been due to take part in his first major tournament – the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations in Equatorial Guinea – when the accident happened, picking up a spinal injury that left him with limited movement from the waist down.