Ryan Bain, who was in his late 20s and on a break with his wife Natalie, died after getting into trouble while swimming in Zante.

The accident is believed to have happened on Monday. Mr and Mrs Bain, from Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, had only just begun their holiday at the weekend.

Mr Bain was a promising footballer in his youth but his hopes of making it a career were dashed when he lost an eye in a vicious street attack.

Yesterday his parents Willie and Ann and their daughter Erin, who live in the Hillhouse area of the town, were too upset to talk about their loss.

However, a local resident said: “It’s a real tragedy. Ryan was at his mum’s at the end of last week just before he went to Zante.

“He had only just arrived in the resort on Saturday. He apparently went for a swim because it was so hot.”

A Foreign Office spokeswoman confirmed the death. The spokeswoman added that while it was unclear how the incident happened, it had happened at a pool.

The death is the second involving a British tourist abroad in a pool in the past week.

Nathan Clark, 14, from the Isle of Man, died at a water park in the resort of Pattaya, Thailand, after lifting a grille at the bottom of the pool while looking for his lost goggles.

Mr Clark disappeared into the pipe below and is thought to have been sucked into the pump system. The alarm was raised, but despite efforts to find him by his father and brother it was not until some time later that his body was discovered.

Mr Clark senior later accused the pool’s lifeguards of doing little to check on the welfare of swimmers.

Zante is a long-established favourite with Scots travellers as a summer destination with a sunny climate most of the year.

Some of the best-known resorts are Kalamaki, Argassi, Alykes, and Tsilivi, while Laganas is the most famous of all.

Its long beach and wide range of facilities attract thousands of tourists from May through to October. Last July a British teenager died while on a holiday drinking binge in Greece. The 17-year-old was reported to have collapsed during a night out in Laganas.