Heading ball ‘likely’ contributed to Gordon McQueen brain injury, coroner finds

Heading a football “likely” contributed to the brain injury that was a factor in the death of former Scotland defender Gordon McQueen, a coroner has found.

McQueen – who was capped for Scotland 30 times between 1974 and 1981, and played for both Leeds and Manchester United during a 16-year career – died at his home in North Yorkshire in June 2023, aged 70.

The cause of death was pneumonia as he had become frail and bed-bound for months, the inquest in Northallerton, North Yorkshire, heard earlier this month.

That frailty was due to a combination of vascular dementia and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), coroner Jon Heath said.

The coroner gave a narrative conclusion on Monday, finding that McQueen died from pneumonia as a consequence of mixed vascular dementia and CTE.

He said: “It is likely that repetitive head impacts sustained by heading the ball while playing football contributed to the CTE.”

McQueen’s daughter, TV presenter Hayley McQueen, was in court to hear the findings. After being asked last month, while giving evidence at his inquest, if anything in his history was behind his dementia, she told barrister Michael Rawlinson KC: “He said: ‘Heading a football for all those years probably hasn’t helped’.”

“They would just head back out and play,” she added, referring to how players would resume games despite suffering concussions, with memories of her father returning from Manchester United training to lie down in a dark room with a headache.

After his death, McQueen’s family donated his brain to Professor Willie Stewart, a consultant neuropathologist at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, Glasgow, who found subsequent evidence of CTE and vascular dementia.

Prof Stewart agreed with barrister Michael Rawlinson KC, for the McQueen family, that CTE “more than minimally, negligibly or trivially” contributed to the death, with “heading the ball” also contributing to CTE. His “high exposure” to heading a football was the only evidence available.

Ms McQueen said her father was very healthy and active during his time as a player and following his retirement, but changes in his personality had been noticed following his 60th birthday.

Previously a very sociable and outgoing man, Ms McQueen said her father had become more withdrawn.

McQueen won a first division title at Leeds in 1974, before winning the FA Cup at Manchester United in 1983.

Five of England’s 1966 World Cup-winning team (Sir Bobby Charlton, his brother Jack, Ray Wilson, Martin Peters and Nobby Stiles) were diagnosed with the disease, with it causing or contributing to their deaths.

With mounting evidence that heading a ball can cause brain damage, there have been calls for a ban on the technique. It was prohibited in English football for matches involving under-7s to under-9s during the 2024-25 season.

The ban now extends to under-10s this season, with the rule to be introduced at under-11s matches in the 2026-27 campaign.