NZ Maori All Blacks Rugby Player Connor Garden-Bachop dies at 25 from 'medical event'

New Zealand rugby star Connor Garden-Bachop passed away suddenly on Monday following a “medical event,” New Zealand Rugby announced Tuesday.

He was 25.

Garden-Bachop played for New Zealand professional rugby union team The Highlanders and Māori All Blacks. Officials did not disclose the nature of the medical issue he suffered.

“Rugby’s collective focus at this time is on supporting his family. All of rugby walks alongside the Garden-Bachop family at this time and we are collectively united in our grief,” New Zealand Rugby said in a group statement along with the New Zealand Māori Rugby Board, the Highlanders, Wellington Rugby and New Zealand Rugby Players Association.

“Connor was a fantastic young player, an exciting New Zealand age-grade representative and a proud Māori All Black. Wherever he played, he was a committed and popular teammate with infectious energy and someone who could light up the room,” the statement said.

He was described as a “loving father to his twin girls,” as well as a brother and son “immeasurably loved by all those who knew him.”

Christchurch police said that they responded to a sudden death in the suburb of Fendalton on Monday evening, but the death was not being treated as suspicious, The Associated Press reported.

Garden-Bachop came from a rugby family. His father, Stephen Bachop, played for the All Blacks and the Samoa national rugby union team, and his uncle was All Black player Graham Bachop. His mother, Sue Garden-Bachop, who passed away in 2008 from cancer, also represented New Zealand in rugby, basketball and field hockey.

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