Fiorentina retire number 13 shirt in memory of Davide Astori

Fiorentina and Cagliari have retired their number 13 shirt in memory of Davide Astori, the Italian clubs have announced.

The 31-year-old was found dead in his hotel room in Udine on Sunday, hours before Fiorentina were due to face Udinese in a Serie A fixture.

All of Sunday's seven Serie A games were postponed as a result and tributes from across the footballing world poured in for the defender, who won 14 caps for Italy.

Fiorentina and Cagliari, Astori's club between 2008 and 2016, announced they had retired the number 13 shirt in honour of their former player.

Fiorentina tweeted: "In honour of Davide Astori's memory, Cagliari Calcio and ACF Fiorentina have decided to retire the No.13 shirt."

Cagliari, having changed their Twitter handle to 'Ciao Davide', added: "To honour their memory and make indelible the memory of David Astori, @acffiorentina and @CagliariCalcio have decided to jointly withdraw the jersey with the number 13."

Antonio Conte, who worked with Astori as part of the Italian national team, called the defender a "fantastic guy" in an interview before Chelsea's match against Manchester City on Sunday afternoon.

"This is a tragedy. This news really hurt me. It's very difficult to find the right words for the family," he said.

"I had him with the national team. It's very difficult to speak about this tragedy.

"He was a fantastic guy - a great player but especially a fantastic guy. I stay very close to his family in this moment because he was only 31. It's very difficult to explain this situation."

Former Italy captain Gianluigi Buffon also paid tribute to his Azzurri teammate in a heartfelt Instagram post.

"You have a young wife and family members who are suffering. Your little girl deserves to know that her father was in all respects a perfect person," he wrote.

"You were the best expression of an ancient, surpassed world, in which values such as altruism, elegance, education and respect for others, were the masters.

"You were one of the best sports figures I ever came across."

Fiorentina announced on Sunday morning that Astori had died following a "sudden illness", and a day later prosecutors opened a culpable homicide case over his death.

A post mortem will be performed on Tuesday with Astori's funeral being held at the Basilica of Santa Croce in Florence on Thursday morning.