Football Heading Linked to CTE in McQueen's Death

A coroner has ruled that repetitive head impacts from heading a football likely contributed to the chronic traumatic encephalopathy that factored into the death of former Scotland international defender Gordon McQueen. McQueen, who earned 30 caps for his country between 1974 and 1981, died at his home in North Yorkshire in June 2023 at the age of 70.

The inquest into McQueen's death, held in Northallerton, North Yorkshire, concluded that pneumonia was the immediate cause, brought on by months of frailty that left him bedbound. Coroner Jon Heath determined that this frailty stemmed from a combination of mixed vascular dementia and chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE. In his narrative conclusion delivered on Monday, Heath stated, "It is likely that repetitive head impacts sustained by heading the ball while playing football contributed to the CTE."

McQueen's daughter, Hayley McQueen, a television presenter, attended the inquest and provided testimony about her father's health decline. She recounted how McQueen himself linked his condition to his playing days, saying he believed "heading a football for all those years probably hasn't helped." Hayley described her father as...