U.S. Soccer Journalist Grant Wahl’s Wife Reveals His Cause of Death

More details have come to light about the death of journalist Grant Wahl.

Days after the sports reporter passed away in Qatar, his wife, Dr. Celine Gounder, shared his cause of death. “He had an autopsy done here in New York by the New York City medical examiner’s office,” Celine, an infectious disease specialist, said in a Dec. 14 interview with CBS News, “and it showed that he had an aortic aneurysm that ruptured.”

Grant, 49, was covering the World Cup when he collapsed and died at the quarterfinal match between Argentina and Netherlands on Dec. 9. At the time, Qatar’s Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy (SC) said in a statement to NBC News that Grant “fell ill in the Lusail Stadium media tribune, during last night’s quarter-final match. He received immediate emergency medical treatment on site, which continued as he was transferred by ambulance to Hamad General Hospital.”

His family has been seeking answers about his cause of death, with brother Eric Wahl tweeting on Dec. 12, It seems possible Grant experienced a pulmonary embolism & was in a non-shockable state,” but later saying it “was not PE” after all.

On Dec. 10, Eric wrote, “To clarify, Grant was a healthy person in his regular life. I know he’d been under the weather recently & that he was told it was bronchitis & given medication. I’m aware of his posts about feeling like his body shut down. He was a workaholic & had used that phrase before w me.”