An autopsy yesterday at the Eric Williams Medical Complex in Mt Hope revealed that ex-national Under-20 football captain Marvin Lee died of pneumonia. He will be buried at the Tunapuna Cemetery on Thursday after a funeral service from 3.30 pm at the Dr Joao Havelange Centre of Excellence, Macoya, Tunapuna.

FIFA vice-president Jack Warner will bear all expenses for Lee’s funeral. Warner will be arriving today from Zurich, Switzerland via New York, where he attended several FIFA committee meetings. He expressed his deepest sympathy with the family over the 21-year-old Lee’s sudden death. The Dr Joao Havelange Centre is the venue where Lee suffered his crippling injury during a CONCACAF Under-20 qualifying match against the United States. But the former Tranquillity Secondary student will spend one final time at his Santa Rosa Heights, Arima residence at noon on Thursday, following which he will be taken to the Centre of Excellence an hour later where his casket will be open for display and a condolence book available at his side.

According to Lee’s mother, Dawn Warrick, yesterday the family received sympathies from footballing administrators from Canada and England but no word was received as yet from the USA Soccer Federation. Warner said news of Lee’s death was tragic and shocking but there are useful  lessons to be learnt from his life which he (Warner) will touch on at his funeral. Following Lee’s accident, Warner had the young injured footballer flown to Miami by air ambulance for specialised treatment at his expense. Warner later had Lee’s home specially fitted so he could  get around on his wheelchair to which he had been confined.