Missing Cardiff City striker Emiliano Sala reportedly sent a voice message to friends expressing concern for his safety before his disappearance.
Sala was on board a Piper Malibu plane which went missing over the English channel at around 8.30pm on Monday.
The 28-year-old is feared dead after Guernsey Police admitted that chances of survival were now "slim", having failed to find any trace of the player or his pilot in extensive searches so far.
Argentine media outlet Ole have released an audio file sent from Sala to his friends on WhatsApp in a final message before the plane went off the radar.
In it, Sala says: "Hello, little brothers, how are you crazy people? Brother, I'm dead, I was here in Nantes doing things, things, things, things and things, and it never stops, it never stops, it never stops.
"I'm here on a plane that looks like it's about to fall apart, and I'm going to Cardiff, crazy, tomorrow we already start, and in the afternoon we start training, boys, in my new team... Let's see what happens, so, how are you brothers and sisters, alright?
"If in an hour and a half you have no news from me, I don't know if they are going to send someone to look for me because they cannot find me, but you know ... Dad, how scared am I!"
Sala is also understood to have texted friends saying that the plane was making "weird noises" before it lost contact with air traffic control.
The tragic incident occurred just days after Sala had completed a £15m deal to join Cardiff from Nantes, making him the Bluebirds' most expensive ever signing.
Barney Corkhill
