SOCCER-mad schoolgirl Clare Yates collapsed and died as horrified friends watched.

Now a post mortem will try to discover what killed the 13-year-old Whitefield girl who worshipped Manchester United.

Minutes before the tragedy, Clare had been cheering United's Champions League success against FC Porto on TV.

She went out to play with friends in Lune Walk where she lived with her grandparents. Witnesses say she suddenly went into convulsions and collapsed.

Clare, who had heart valve replacement surgery as a baby, was rushed by ambulance to Booth Hall Children's Hospital in Manchester but was dead on arrival.

Although senior police officers are awaiting the results of yesterday's post mortem, they have described the fun-loving girl's death as "a tragic accident".

The shock news was broken to her friends at Castlebrook High School yesterday by headteacher Mr John Gannon, during a special assembly. A number of tearful pupils later went home after being collected by their parents.

The headteacher said: "Clare had lots of friends and many were very upset.

"She just loved football. One friend told me she would only wear a skirt when she had to go to school."

The popular girl went to live with her grandparents four years ago when her mother Lesley became bed-ridden with multiple sclerosis. She later died.

Clare's distraught grandfather, Mr Kenneth Yates, 69, said yesterday: "Clare had been watching the Manchester United game on television. She was United daft.

"She went out to play with friends and the first we knew something had happened was when a neighbour came to the door and told us she had collapsed."

Since the valve replacement surgery when she was 12-months-old, she has had occasional hospital check-ups though she had never been troubled by her condition.

"Clare was a normal, healthy girl, just like any other," added Mr Yates.

"She was a bit of a tomboy who enjoyed football and she had lots of friends."

Det Insp Jeff Warburton of Bury CID said they were not treating the death as suspicious.

"As far as we are concerned, this was a terrible tragedy. Our sympathy goes out to the family." THIS is the second sudden death involving a Castlebrook pupil. In December 1995, Rosie Sillett (13) died four days after collapsing in a school art class. The post mortem was inconclusive and the cause of her death remains a mystery.

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