Zakaria Zerouali - Death

Death

On 28 September 2011 Zakaria Zerouali was transferred to a hospital in Casablanca. Mr Arsi, Raja Casablanca's doctor, confirmed that Zerouali had ingested three boxes of Paracetamol in 24 hours, and that is what caused a liver toxicity. However, it was later revealed that Zerouali had not consumed the supposed two boxes of paracetamol and the final medical report makes no mention of any paracetamol-related toxicity.

Zerouali's health conditions were stable until the 30 September, when some dangerous sudden changes had happened and completely destroyed the liver and caused Cytolysis.

The President Mr Abdeslam Hanat said that Raja Casablanca had prepared a flight to take Zakaria Zerouali to Bordeaux, France for a surgery, but the medical staff in Casablanca couldn't allow the player transit because of bad and deteriorating health conditions.

Raja Casablanca announced that Zakaria Zerouali had died on Monday 3 October 2011 at 4:45 am but later Radio Mars correspondent to the team headquarters said that he died at 2 am.

A few days after the death of Zerouali, Morocco national team doctor, Abderrazak Hifti stated in the press that the case looked suspicious and that the cause of death may have been related to medical negligence due to an inaccurate diagnosis. Other physicians would join Hifti arguing that the symptoms exhibited by Zerouali, match a Tropical disease and since these are rare in Morocco, doctors wrongly diagnosed it first as a benign flu then as food poisoning. Zakaria Zerouali may have contracted the tropical disease during Raja Casablanca's travels to sub-Saharan Africa for games of the 2011 African Champions League. Further investigations revealed that Moroccan teams often neglect vaccinations and preventive medical treatment related to diseases specific to sub-Saharan Africa.

No autopsy was conducted before burial, which further aggravated suspicions of medical negligence.