IRELAND MANAGER MARTIN O’Neill has paid tribute to former Newcastle midfielder Cheick Tioté, whose sudden death at the age of 30 was confirmed on Monday.

The player, who had been playing for Chinese second-tier outfit Beijing Enterprises, reportedly collapsed during a training session and was rushed to hospital before being pronounced dead.

In today’s pre-match press conference ahead of next Sunday’s Ireland-Austria World Cup qualifier, O’Neill — whose Sunderland side came up against Newcastle teams featuring Tioté during the Derry native’s time as manager at the Stadium of light — expressed sadness at the news.

“It’s really sad, I must admit, really, really sad,” the Ireland boss said.

“He was a young man in the prime of his life and a really combative player, really very strong and certainly in those games, he used to cause us plenty of problems.”

Meanwhile, Ireland and Brighton defender Shane Duffy, who had a near-death experience in training back in 2010, also paid his respects to the late Ivorian.

“It’s a tough time for football when you hear stuff like that. You look at life a little bit different, it’s sad — prayers to his family and the people close to him.

“It puts football aside…. It’s nice to see people in the football world behind it and the support he’s got.”

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