The coronavirus pandemic has its first football fatality, as the Stade de Reims club medic Professor Bernard Gonzalez committed suicide after testing positive for COVID-19.

The reports in Le Parisien were confirmed in a statement from the Ligue 1 club.

Professor Gonzalez was 60 years old, had been working for the club for over 20 years and it’s reported both he and his wife tested positive.

He left a detailed suicide note explaining that he took his own life because he was suffering from coronavirus.

“Words fail me, I am stunned,” wrote Reims President Jean-Pierre Caillot.

This makes Gonzalez the first member of a professional football club to die after contracting coronavirus, although he took his own life.