\n<\/p>\n
“He just wouldn’t really know what year it was or what day it was,” Hayley said.<\/p>\n
“He was very active and trying to do crosswords and watch football. He lost the ability to write.<\/p>\n
“He couldn’t make a cup of tea. He got confused about what went where. He kept saying, ‘there’s something not right in my head’.”<\/p>\n
“He used to get confused about things. Never people – he had an incredible memory for the past.<\/p>\n
“It was more the withdrawn nature of my dad. He would be the centre of attention, but (with dementia) he would have to be asked a question to speak.”<\/p>\n
Asked by Michael Rawlinson KC, representing the McQueen family, how her father scored his goals, Hayley said: “Mainly with his head, from a set-piece.”<\/p>\n
Professor Willie Stewart, a consultant at Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow who examined McQueen’s brain after his death, described how a membrane in the brain appeared torn and that chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) was present in various places.<\/p>\n
“Gordon technically fell into the lower stage of the disease, although on the threshold of the higher stage,” he said.<\/p>\n
Prof Stewart said symptoms of CTE were cognitive decline and neuro-behaviour change, and that they “can’t be explained by another condition – it must be progressive”.<\/p>\n
He said symptoms were “typical in individuals who have long careers – professional footballers and rugby players”.<\/p>\n
Asked if there was a causal link between CTE and repetitive head injury, he said: “The answer to that is yes.”<\/p>\n
Senior coroner John Heath said the post-mortem found pneumonia in McQueen’s right lung, mixed vascular dementia and CTE.<\/p>\n
Prof Stewart, who conducted a 2021 study on whether certain positions on the pitch were more associated with neurodegenerative disease than others, said: “The players, the goalkeepers who don’t head the ball had a risk equivalent to general population, whereas in outfield positions, particularly defenders, the risk was higher.”<\/p>\n
The inquest continues.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n