A former Nigerian player leaves at the age of 38.

The Nigerian football community received heartbreaking news after they learned about the death of former Nigerian international Gift Atulewa due to a sudden rise in blood pressure.

As for Azuka Chiemeka , the official spokesman for the Delta State Football Association that the former player died on Tuesday morning at seven in the morning. And he added: ""We just buried the wife last month, that may have contributed to this development. He has blood pressure issues, but he has been managing it, just day before yesterday, the condition became bad, and he was taken to the hospital, they noticed he had malaria but aside from that, the blood pressure kept going up, we lost him this morning by 7 a.m"