Diogo Jota, the 28-year-old Liverpool star killed along with his brother in a tragic car accident in Spain on Thursday, was on a 10-hour drive to a Spanish ferry because doctors forbade him from flying.
The Portuguese English Premier League (EPL) star and his brother, Andre Silva, died in a fiery wreck near the northwestern city of Zamora, Spain, when his Lamborghini veered off the road.
The pair was traveling from Porto, Portugal, to Santander, Spain, to catch a ferry to Portsmouth, England.
Jota took the roughly 10-hour journey by car because he had just undergone surgery and his doctors told him not to fly, the Telegraph Sport reports.
According to reports, the Lamborghini’s tire burst while the vehicle was attempting to pass another car. The tragedy occurred on a remote stretch of highway near the Portuguese border.
Jota had three children and had just married their mother, Rute Cardoso, only weeks before.
Jota’s countryman and inspiration, soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo, mourned the loss of the young player on Instagram.
“Doesn’t make any sense,” Ronaldo wrote on Friday.
“Just now we were together in the National Team, just now you were married.”
A funeral is expected to be held for the brother on Saturday in Porto, Portugal.
