The wife of journalist Grant Wahl said Wahl’s death last week while covering the World Cup was due to an undetected aortic aneurysm.
Grant Wahl died of an aneurysm in his heart when he was stricken while covering a World Cup match last weekend, according to an autopsy of the well-known American soccer writer.
Wahl’s wife, Dr. Celine Gounder, said Wednesday that an autopsy was conducted by the New York City Medical Examiner’s Office.
“Grant died from the rupture of a slowly growing, undetected ascending aortic aneurysm with hemopericardium,” she wrote on her husband’s Substack newsletter, referring to the wall that surrounds the heart.
“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.”
Wahl, who was 49, was stricken in the media tribune of Lusail Iconic Stadium in Qatar early Saturday during extra time in Argentina’s quarterfinal match against the Netherlands.
