Football journalist from the US, Grant Wahl, who was covering the FIFA World Cup in Qatar last week, died after due to a heart-related condition. The news was confirmed by his wife Céline Gounder in a statement she made on the website 'Fútbol with Grant Wahl'.
Earlier this week, on 10 December 2022, Wahl had collapsed in the media box, while he was covering the World Cup quarter-final between Argentina and Netherlands. Despite attempting CPR and emergency drills, the 48-year-old journalist was not revived.
Football Journalist Died Due to a Medical Condition: Autopsy Report
According to Wahl's wife Céline Gounder, the mortal remains of the departed journalist was flown to New York City on 12 December 2022, were an autopsy was conducted to determine the cause of the death.
As per the statement released by Gounder, Wahl died due to the rupturing of a balloon-like bulge in the aorta. Ruling out any criminal activity, she said,
"Grant died from the rupture of a slowly growing, undetected ascending aortic aneurysm with hemopericardium. The chest pressure he experienced shortly before his death may have represented the initial symptoms. No amount of CPR or shocks would have saved him. His death was unrelated to COVID. His death was unrelated to vaccination status. There was nothing nefarious about his death."
The US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention states that the rupture Wahl suffered is usually caused when the force of the blood pumping can split layers of the arterial wall, further leading to bleeding inside the body.
Tributes also poured in from all quarters, with the US soccer stating that the entire football family was heartbroken to learn of Wahl's passing.
"Fans of soccer and journalism of the highest quality knew we could always count on Grant to deliver insightful and entertaining stories about our game and its major protagonists: teams, players, coaches and the many personalities that make soccer unlike any sport," added the statement by US Soccer.
Grant Wahl began his career as a journalist in 1996 with Sports Illustrated, after graduating from Princeton University. Some of the ground breaking work he did was, reporting on basketball legend Lebron James, the 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup won by USA and a feature story on Claudio and Danielle Reyna—football couple from the US.
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)