Hockey legend Mohammed Shahid passed away at the age of 56 early on Wednesday morning in Medanta Hospital, Gurgaon. The 1980 Olympic Gold medalist and arguably the greatest of his generation had been suffering from multiple kidney and liver ailments for several weeks now and had slipped into a coma on Tuesday night. Shahid is survived by his wife Parveen and two children, Saif and Heena.
He was brought to Medanta in the last week of June as he was suffering from liver and kidney ailments that were triggered when the legend ignored a bout of jaundice. Earlier, former Union sports minister Dr Jitendra Singh had announced a grant of Rs. 10 lakh for Shahid. The Railways, who are Shahid’s employers had also announced that his medical expenses will be taken care of by them.
Journalist Sailesh Chaturvedi, who had earlier announced the sad news of the hockey wizard slipping into a coma, broke the news to the world through his Twitter account. The news of Shahid’s demise has brought the sporting world to a standstill and tributes started pouring for the former Arjuna Awardee on Twitter and other social networking websites
