Football in mourning as body of inspirational ex-Socceroo found after police search

The body of a missing 46-year-old former Socceroo has reportedly been found in bushland in the New South Wales north coast in a tragic conclusion to a police search.

Stephen Laybutt, who played 15 matches for the Socceroos from 2000-2004 and represented the Olyroos at the Sydney 2000 Olympics, had been visiting friends in Casuarina but went missing on Friday night.

He was reported missing on Saturday morning, and his car found at a Cabarita shop later that morning. A large-scale police search was conducting for the missing former footballer, and his body was reportedly found in bushland near Cabarita at 7pm on Sunday.

Laybutt’s journeyman career, which included stints in Europe, ended prematurely in 2008 after a ruptured achilles tendon while playing for the Newcastle Jets in the A-League.

He would later come out as gay, marking a significant milestone for Australian men’s football.

Laybutt went on to work in the rehabilitation unit at St Vincent’s Private Hospital in Sydney.

In 2021, he inspired the nation when he donated a kidney to a patient there who had been on dialysis for three years.

“Hey mate it’s Steve from St Vincent’s,” he texted the recipient Ian Pavey out of the blue, according to the SMH. “I want to investigate if I could give you a kidney. Consider it please.”

The death is not being treated as suspicious.

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