Aussie Rules player dead after Las Vegas bash
(09-10 17:06)
An Australian Rules footballer with the top-flight Port Adelaide Power team has been found dead outside a Las Vegas hotel, the team said.
John McCarthy, a 22-year-old midfielder for the Australian Football League club, had been on holiday with a group of team mates before he was found dead outside the Flamingo Hotel early on Sunday morning, local media reported.
“We were informed at 9:30 [Sunday] this morning that John had been involved in a fatal accident,'' Port chief executive Keith Thomas said in Adelaide, Reuters reports.
“It's our understanding that at the time of his death he wasn't with any other players.''
Players of Australian Rules traditionally embark on wild celebrations with team mates in their home cities and in overseas destinations after their final games of the season.
The blowouts, been dubbed Mad Mondays, have attracted negative headlines in recent years.
Local media quoted a spokesperson at the hotel as saying McCarthy’s body was found on the hotel's driveway, after an apparent fall from a balcony. McCarthy was taken to a nearby hospital where he was pronounced dead, reports said.
Thomas said neither McCarthy, nor any of the other players, had been staying at the Flamingo.
The death has cast a pall over the AFL's postseason finals series which opened over the weekend. Port Adelaide failed to make the finals in the 18-team competition and played their last regular season game on Sept. 2.
McCarthy had played 21 games in a breakout season with Port this year after struggling to make the first team at Melbourne-based rivals Collingwood.
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