Davide Astori death: Italian prosecutors investigate manslaughter case ahead of autopsy, official confirms

Only now can Italian authorities perform an autopsy to determine the cause of Astori's death

Italian authorities have opened a manslaughter investigation into the death of Fiorentina captain Davide Astori, who passed away aged 31 on Sunday morning.

The centre-back was found dead in his hotel room ahead of the Florence club’s game at Udinese and the cause of his death remains unknown. Under Italian law, the only way an autopsy can take place to discover the cause of death is if a criminal case is opened, which the local chief prosecutor confirmed on Monday.

"An inquiry has been opened for culpable homicide against persons unknown,” said Antonio De Nicolo.

"It is a duty to ascertain if the death of Astori came about through tragic fatality or if someone could have foreseen something.

"At this moment no one has responsibility for anything which would seem to us to amount to something.

"It permits us to individualise responsibility if there is any."

Itailan news agency ANSA reported that investigators believed Astori had died of natural causes.

They said it was likely to have been a sudden death, and that he had exchanged a WhatsApp message with team-mate Marco Sportiello, whom he had played a PlayStation game with, at around 11.30pm on Saturday evening.

Investigators told ANSA that his hotel room was in order, and that he was found in bed under the blankets.

The remainder of Serie A’s slate of games was postponed after news of Astori’s passing was announced by Fiorentina, with players from around the world expressing their shock and sadness at his untimely passing.