KINGSTON – Ja­maican foot­baller Hugh How­ell trag­i­cal­ly col­lapsed and died on Sun­day while scrim­mag­ing.

The 39-year-old How­ell, known as a hard tack­ling en­forcer, rep­re­sent­ed Wa­ter­house FC and Hum­ble Li­on in the Ja­maican Pre­mier League (JPL).

He was a mem­ber of Wa­ter­house’s cham­pi­onship win­ning side in 2005-2006 be­fore mov­ing on to Hum­ble Li­on in 2013, where he helped the Claren­don side be­come se­ri­ous ti­tle con­tenders dur­ing his spell.

When How­ell’s play­ing days end­ed at Hum­ble Li­on, he dab­bled in coach­ing at Vere Tech­ni­cal High School.

Michael Rick­etts, pres­i­dent of the Ja­maica Foot­ball Fed­er­a­tion, paid his trib­ute.

“So sad. Hugh and I had a good re­la­tion­ship. RIP my friend,” Rick­etts wrote on so­cial me­dia.

Wa­ter­house coach Mar­cel Gayle said How­ell was a “true leader” whose con­tri­bu­tion to foot­ball was im­mense.

“He left Ex­cel­sior and came straight to us. He was a hard work­er, no-non­sense play­er and played for the shirt. He will be missed,” Gayle said.

An­drew Price, who coached How­ell at Hum­ble Li­on, said: “con­do­lences to the fam­i­ly of the man called ‘Go­ril­la’. He was a great ser­vant of the game. RIP Bal­la”.

CMC