Former Wigan defender Steve Gohouri found dead

Dusseldorf police confirmed the news on Saturday, according to a report in the Rheinische Post.

The 34-year-old defender, who played for Wigan between 2010 and 2012 and also represented Maccabi Tel Aviv and Borussia Monchengladbach, had been reported missing by his family in December.

Gohouri, who had 13 caps for the Ivory Coast, attended the Christmas party of his German club TSV Steinbach before heading to see his family in Paris, but he never arrived.

The exact circumstances of his death are yet to be disclosed, though German newspaper Express reported that his body was recovered from the river Rhine.