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Gordon McQueen's daughter Hayley's turmoil as wait for death certificate passes 18 months
Hayley McQueen's father, former Manchester United and Scotland defender, Gordon, sadly passed away in 2023 – but his family are still waiting for his death certificate
Sky Sports presenter Hayley McQueen has disclosed that she is yet to receive her father Gordon's death certificate.
McQueen, 45, shared the sad news of her father's passing at age 70 in June 2023. Gordon was a cherished figure in football with noteworthy stints at Manchester United, Leeds United and St Mirren while also representing Scotland on the international stage on 30 occasions.
He had been diagnosed with vascular dementia two-years prior to his passing. Earlier this year, it was made public that Northallerton Coroners Court would hold an inquest into McQueen's death to look into possible connections with heading the ball during his professional career.
The inquest is also aimed to explore the number of goals resulted from headers he contributed during his career. Hayley and her family have previously indicated their concern that regularly heading footballs could have contributed to his dementia.
Five months since the inquest announcement, Hayley expressed on the Ainslie + Ainslie Performance People podcast that they are still awaiting a death certificate. When asked about it, McQueen said: "Yes. We are still waiting for the cause of death and whether it's ruled as industrial disease."
Hayley sought the expertise of Professor William Stewart, who played a significant role in the 2021 parliamentary review into the link between sports and long-term brain injuries, and offered her father's brain for medical examination shortly after he died. She added: "I was in contact with him (Professor Stewart) before and we discussed a few things.
"I'd had to get quite matter-of-fact about things, but I was like 'Oh, my dad does want to donate his brain to medical science.' We did that privately, but our local coroner decided that he wanted to open an inquest because on my Dad's death certificate – well he doesn't have a death certificate – the interim cause of death, when you're issued a certificate to handle banking issues and such, was listed as pneumonia.
"My dad did not die from pneumonia. He was bed bound and due to the liquid intake, it was a complication. Eventually, that took him."
Hayley elaborated on what Professor Stewart discovered, stating: "Everything points towards the heading of the football. There is CTE (Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy) that professor Willie Stewart found. He's just the most wonderful and incredible man, and he sat with us and broke down everything in the post-mortem."
In 2019, the Football Association and the Professional Footballers' Association conducted their own study and concluded that former football players are three-and-a-half times more likely to die from degenerative brain diseases.
Regarding the inquest into McQueen's death, the brief hearing stated that they could not set a date, as they were unable to find his medical records between 1972 and 1995. Coroner Jon Heath said he would need to locate the records from that time period before they could proceed.
The timetable for the inquest remains unclear, but following her discussion with Professor Stewart, Hayley and her family are now more resolved than ever to uncover further details surrounding the death. She said: "It spurred us on. We were like 'Okay, we're going to fight this fight.' We haven't done it for any kind of litigation, we just want information.
"I would love to know that, if they think it was from the heading of the football, that the information was really powerful, to make the authorities and people in football really start to pay attention to the fact that you can get brain damage from heading a football."
