GLEN Orden Football Club members are mourning the loss of a teenage player who died as a result of a freak accident in a footy match.
Werribee boy Andrew Gilmore, 17, died yesterday, two weeks after he was injured in a junior football match which damaged his pancreas.
The talented footballer and cricketer, known to his friends as ``Happy Gilmore, had part of his pancreas removed in hospital but was discharged earlier this week.
Then yesterday morning, he awoke in pain.
His family called an ambulance but he was dead before paramedics arrived.
It has emerged that doctors had failed to find a blood clot on his lungs which is believed to have killed him.
His mother Irene was distraught today.
"He was the best kid you could ever have," she told Channel Nine News.
"Whoever he met, he would touch their hearts"
Ms Gilmore said her son loved football.
"He said to me `I played footy to put my life on the line and today I did'"
Irene said all parents should never take their children for granted.
"He was taken far too soon,she said."
"Just cherish them."
Glen Orden Football Club players wrote tributes to their lost mate on the wall of the changerooms today.
Last Modified on 24/05/2009 12:13