MADRID: Former Liver­pool striker Michael Robin­son has died at the age of 61, the Premier League club said on Tuesday.

The former Ireland international, who won a league, League Cup and European Cup treble with Liverpool in the 1983-84 season, also play­ed for Brighton & Hove Albion, Manchester City and Queens Park Rangers before ending his career with Spain’s Osasuna.

Leicester-born Robinson stayed in Spain after his playing career finished in 1989 and became a respected television commentator, pundit and presenter.

“Liverpool FC is deeply saddened by the passing of former player Michael Robinson, aged 61,” the club said in a statement.

Robinson had said in Dec­ember 2018 that he had a mali­gnant melanoma for which doctors said there was no cure.

“With tremendous sadness we inform you of Michael’s death. It leaves us with a great emptiness but also countless memories full of the same love you have shown him,” his family wrote on his Twitter account.

City, Brighton, Osasuna and Barcelona were among other clubs who took to social media to pay tribute to Robinson, while world number two tennis player Rafa Nadal described him as “one who always made us happy about sport” in a message on Twitter.

After spells with Preston North End, City and Brigh­ton, Robinson joined Liver­pool — the team he supported as a boy — in August 1983 as a back-up to Ian Rush.

Robinson was capped 24 times by Ireland and scored four goals for them.

Published in Dawn, April 29th, 2020