Mourners gathered to say their final goodbyes to Emiliano Sala at a wake in his home town of Argentina.

The footballer, 28, died from horrific injuries to his head and body when the private plane he was flying in crashed into the English Channel on 21 January.

Sala’s body was pulled from the wreckage on 7 February.

His aunt Mirta Taffarel broke down in tears at a vigil on Friday.

Cardiff manager Neil Warnock and chief executive Ken Choo are both attending the wake in Progreso in the Argentinian province of Santa Fe on Saturday.

A public vigil, expected to last for several hours, is being held in the gymnasium of San Martin de Progreso, the club Sala played for as a little boy.

The club posted an emotional tribute on Facebook earlier this week, saying the footballer would be ‘eternally in our hearts’, adding: ‘We are waiting for you… like the first day you left but this time to stay with us forever. You went and you are an example for everyone.’

Sala was born in October 1990 at Esperanza, Santa Fe, Argentina.

At the opening of an inquest, his cause of death was given as ‘head and trunk injuries’.

The pilot of the plane, David Ibbotson, is still missing following the crash, and a fundraising campaign to restart the search for him has raised more than £240,000.

Speaking on Good Morning Britain earlier this week, his daughter Danielle said the family would not give up hope that he would be found.

She said: ‘If you’ve got hope then you shouldn’t give up. He wouldn’t stop searching for me.’

‘We still hope and pray and hope everyone keeps my dad in their prayers.’

Sala’s body was recovered in a privately funded search, which was launched after the initial search was called off three days after the men and their plane went missing.

His body arrived in Argentina on Friday and was driven from Buenos Aires to the Santa Fe province.

Although Mr Ibbotson, 59, of Crowle, Lincolnshire, was not located, poor weather conditions meant a ‘difficult decision was taken to bring the overall operation to a close’, the Air Accidents Investigation Branch said.

His wife Nora said earlier this week: ‘We just know we can’t leave him out there on his own until we have tried to do everything we can.’

The aircraft remains underwater off the coast of Guernsey in the English Channel.