ALL teams in the first and second divisions of La Liga will hold a minute's silence at the start of the weekend's matches in tribute to recently-retired national team manager Luis Enrique's nine-year-old daughter, who passed away on Thursday.
Tributes to the former Barça manager's little girl have poured in from the world of professional football and beyond after it was announced that Xana Martínez had lost her five-month battle against bone cancer.
Scheduled press conferences with Under-21 national team manager Luis de la Fuente and national team manager Robert Moreno will be postponed as a sign of mourning.
Luis Enrique Martínez was chosen as Spain manager after last year's World Cup when Fernando Hierro resigned after a month, having been drafted in at the eleventh hour when Julén Lopetegui was fired just two days before the opening match with the team already in Russia.
But the Asturias-born coach gave a short announcement in late June this year to say he had opted to stand down from the rôle due to 'family problems' which he described as being 'of force majeur', and which led to his aide Robert Moreno's being given the job.
He had already had to leave Malta abruptly when Spain was about to play an away match in the stadium in Ta'Qali after being called home – a situtation which recurred during matches against the Faeroe Islands and Sweden.
It was not known why at the time – nor when he resigned – but it is now clear that these 'family problems' were the fact that his daughter Xana was in treatment for osteosarcoma, a type of aggressive bone cancer which mainly affects children and teenagers.
Although statistically very rare, it is the sixth-most common type of childhood cancer, accounting for 3% of cases of the disease in the under-18s, and around four children per million are diagnosed with it every year.
The average age at diagnosis is 15, although many patients are much younger and it has been seen in sufferers aged over 60.
It usually starts in large bones, such as the femur, and spreads rapidly – despite which the majority of children who receive the correct treatment survive and are completely cured, as is the case with nearly 90% of childhood cancer cases.
This said, if an osteosarcoma is very large, it may even involve amputation of the limb.
It is normally diagnosed after patients report pain and swelling in the affected area, especially where the pain increases at night or after physical exertion.
Treatment is normally through chemotherapy to shrink the tumour enough to operate, then after surgery to 'clean up' any cancerous cells that remain in the body.
Xana had been treated by the Sant Joan de Déu and Sant Pau hospitals in Barcelona, whom Luis Enrique thanked for their care and dedication in his tweet confirming his daughter's death.
The nine-year-old leaves behind two sisters, Luis Enrique's other daughters Sira and Pacho.
Real Madrid is pictured above holding a minute's silence for Xana during training.
