Former Italy and Inter Milan defender Mauro Bellugi died on February 20 aged 71, months after both his legs were amputated following complications with coronavirus.
“Today he leaves us, a great man, a great footballer, a true ‘Interista’. Rest in peace, Mauro Bellugi,” Inter Milan wrote on Twitter after Bellugi passed away in Milan.
Doctors were forced to carry out the double amputation in November when a pre-existing condition worsened after the former defender was hospitalised following Covid-19.
“Exactly one year after the first case of Covid in Italy, Mauro Bellugi leaves us,” the president of the Lombardy region Attilio Fontana said in a Facebook post on February 20.
“Scarred by the virus, the national and Inter player tried to react to a complicated health situation with his usual strength and irony. A prayer and a thought for his loved ones.”
Bellugi won the Serie A title with Inter in 1971, and also played for Italy in the World Cups of 1974 and 1978.
“They took off my leg with which I scored against Borussia Moenchengladbach,” said Bellugi at the time of the amputation, speaking about a goal he scored for Inter in the second round of the European Cup in November 1971.
“I will wear prostheses like those of [Oscar] Pistorius.”
Bellugi, who also played for Bologna and Napoli during the 1960s and 1970s, went on to become a football pundit.