'STABBED OVER LINKS TO FEUD MOB'

A FOOTBALLER stabbed to death was not a player in organised crime - and may have been targeted due to his links to those involved in a gangland feud, gardai fear.

- PAUL HEALY

Joseph McEvoy, 34, was brutally stabbed with a machete outside a house in Shancastle Close, near Liffey Valley shopping centre, west Dublin at around 5.30am yesterday morning amid the ongoing gangland feud.

However, gardai are understood to be probing whether McEvoy may have been targeted because of his links to criminals involved in the feud.

The feud is understood to be personal, and a row may have spilled out between the victim and his attacker in the early hours of the morning.

The deceased was attacked amid a spate of incidents over the course of the weekend.

McEvoy, who was club captain with local football club Quarryvale FC, was rushed to hospital but was subsequently declared dead.

Gardai are set to launch a murder investigation - as sources say McEvoy himself was not considered to be a criminal figure.

He is understood to have had no major convictions to his name, but he was connected to a number of people involved in a local feud in the area and gardai are working to establish if he was targeted because of the association.

DISPUTE