Former Australian soccer player Heather Anderson, who died in November aged 28, was suffering from chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), researchers showed findings published on Tuesday.
This is the first fatality in a professional athlete that can be linked to ETC, a disease that can often result from numerous blows to the head during a sports career. However, the results of analyzing the brain of Anderson, who died after a suicide, showed features specific to low-stage ETC. Findings from the Australian Sports Brain Bank (ASBB) point to multiple lesions and abnormalities in the cortex.
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Anderson played seven games for Adelaide in 2017 before retiring and also played rugby. For his father Brian, the diagnosis is therefore no surprise, as reported by the national television station.
“Now that this report is out, I’m trying to understand how this issue is playing out elsewhere in women’s sport,” he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Suicide is hard, it’s a hard way to watch your child die. And it’s hard to just watch your child die.
“On the other hand, it encourages reviewing everything, reviewing every interaction.”
For their part, the authors of the report are hardly optimistic about the future. “She is the first athlete to be diagnosed by ETC, but she won’t be the last.”
“This is a wake-up call for women who play contact sports, as it is for men. “There will be more ETC cases,” predicted ASBB director Michael Buckland in the text.