Debinash Sangma's family had appealed for financial help from the authority only a couple of days earlier for the treatment of the ailing footballer. But the star defender of the 60s went beyond any help when he breathed his last at the Abeer General Hospital at Eskaton yesterday afternoon.

Debinash, who was 75, will be buried at his native village in Dhairpara in Dhubaura upazila, Mymensingh, today. He left behind his wife and two sons.

Debinash, who played for Mohammedan Sporting Club for 12 years and also played for Victoria and Wanderers during a career spanning from 1956 to 1969, was suffering from bladder blade cancer since 1997.

His body was taken to the Green Road Church before being kept at the ICDDRB mortuary.

"I hoped people would at least come to see my ailing father after the news was published in the papers yesterday. We appealed for help because the entire family savings went for his treatment and we became desperate to save him. But we got no response and may be, we were too late to seek for help," said his eldest son Donald Debashish.

A one-minute silence was observed in his memory before the start of the second half of the Premier Football League match between Abahani and Dipali last evening.

Debashish was the only Bangladeshi (then East Pakistan) footballer to play in the Pakistan national team in the 1963 preOlympics in Iran.