T&T rug­by is in shock at the news of the sud­den death of tal­ent­ed cen­tre field play­er Kendall Mootoo.The 21-year-old for­mer St Mary's Col­lege stu­dent, who played for Caribs rug­by foot­ball club and rep­re­sent­ed T&T at un­der-19, de­vel­op­ment and na­tion­al se­nior men's 7s and 15-a-side rug­by teams, is said to have com­mit­ted sui­cide at his Diego Mar­tin home.Ear­li­er this year Mootoo made his se­nior 15s de­but against Bar­ba­dos and Guyana. He was de­scribed by Trinidad and To­ba­go Rug­by Foot­ball Union(TTR­FU) chair­man of the se­lec­tors and men's se­nior team man­ag­er, Cur­tis Nero, as a dis­ci­plined, coura­geous and ded­i­cat­ed young man who al­ways rep­re­sent­ed his coun­try with pride and dig­ni­ty."Kendall had a very bright fu­ture. He was one of the play­ers who would have played a sig­nif­i­cant part in our rug­by plans in the lead up to the Rio de Janiero Olympics 2016. I ex­tend deep­est con­do­lences to his par­ents, sis­ters, friends and team-mates. "To­day is a very sad day," said Nero

Mootoo's na­tion­al and club team-mates used face­book to post mes­sages and con­sole each oth­er as the well liked and pleas­ant young man and rug­by tal­ent was fond­ly re­mem­bered.Some of his team-mates who would have played with him at un­der-19 through to na­tion­al se­nior team lev­el were dis­traught at the news.Nero de­clined to com­ment on the specifics of Mootoo's death out of re­spect for the be­reaved fam­i­ly ."Kendall was al­ways re­spect­ful and will­ing to go the ex­tra mile. He nev­er gave less than 100 per cent. He could be de­pend­ed on and trust­ed with the re­spon­si­bil­i­ty of wear­ing na­tion­al colours. Words can­not ex­press the sense of loss and sad­ness."

Mootoo rep­re­sent­ed T&T at North Amer­i­ca and Caribbean Rug­by As­so­ci­a­tion(NACRA) Caribbean un­der-19 rug­by cham­pi­onships be­tween 2006 and 2009. In May this year he was one of 13 un­capped young play­ers se­lect­ed for the 2011 Caribbean se­nior men's cham­pi­onship.In Ju­ly 2010 he made his na­tion­al men's se­nior team sev­ens de­but when T&T par­tic­i­pat­ed in the his­toric Cen­tral Amer­i­can and Caribbean (CAC) Games at the Na­tion­al Sta­di­um George­town, Guyana.