'Absolute legend': Tributes flood in for Victorian footballer Riki Stephens who died after drug overdose
Friends and family have described Riki Stephens, the Victorian footballer who died after a drugs overdose, as an “absolute legend with a cheeky smile”.
Stephens, 27, took a cocktail of dangerous drugs while on a weekend trip to the Gold Coast and died in hospital on Friday.
Riki Stephens had been in an induced coma since Saturday.
7 News understands his family made the heartbreaking decision to turn off his life support at the Gold Coast University Hospital.
The athlete had travelled to Surfers Paradise for an end-of-season footy trip with his teammates when at least three of them took the deadly mix of LSD and MDMA.
Mr Stephens’ friends and family have flooded his Facebook with tributes remembering the “absolute legend with a cheeky smile”.
"To my full forward, to my idol to my mate. I hope you are at peace, I hope you are still kicking goals," Dylan McCutcheon wrote.
"I love you today, I'll love you tomorrow I'll love you forever, I hope you're at ease."
"You could put a smile on anyone's face. My heart breaks for your family and close friends, a pain that I could never imagine. Rest easy," Abbi Weatherald wrote.
Diamond Creek Football Club also posted a touching message: "Today we lost one of our own. It still doesn't seem real and it's hard to believe that we'll never see that cheeky smile again. Thoughts go out to the family and all of your mates, of which there are plenty. We'll miss you Rik, RIP mate."
Paramedics were called to the Islander Resort Hotel on the weekend, where they treated Mr Stephens and his teammates and transferred them to hospital.
Stephens had just wrapped up his first season with Heathcote Football Club in central Victoria.
It’s claimed Mr Stephens and some of his teammates started to hallucinate after taking the drugs.
The other players returned to Victoria on Monday and had been offered counseling.
President of the football club Andrew Conforti paid tribute to Stephens, who was one of 16 people rushed to hospital as the drug cocktail swept the Gold Coast in a horror two days for emergency services.
"We were lucky enough to have Riki for 12 months ... he got out there and was a star," Mr Conforti told AAP. "There's a lot of people hurting - he was an easy person to love."
The flood of overdoses happened within a 48-hour period, with senior paramedic Stephen Burns saying it was the worst he had seen in his career.
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