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Former Scotland defender, who played for Manchester United and Leeds during a 16-year career, died at his home in 2023, aged 70 Heading a football “likely” contributed to the brain injury which was a factor in the death of the former Scotland defender Gordon Mc Queen, a coroner has found. Mc Queen – who was capped for Scotland 30 times between 1974 and 1981, and played for both Manchester United and Leeds 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, was told this month. That frailty was due to a combination of vascular dementia and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), the coroner Jon Heath said in a narrative conclusion day. Heath said: “It is likely that repetitive head impacts sustained by heading the ball while playing football contributed to the CTE. ” Mc Queen’s daughter, the TV presenter Hayley Mc Queen, was in court to hear the findings. When giving evidence at his inquest this month, she was asked by her barrister Michael Rawlinson KC if her father had discussed whether anything in his past history was behind his dementia. “He said: ‘Heading a football for all those years probably hasn’t helped, ’” she recalled. She said her father was relatively injury-free during his career but did sustain some concussions, adding: “They would just head back out and play. ” She also recalled how, when she was young, he would come home from training with Manchester United and lie down in a darkened room with a headache. Download the Guardian app from the i OS App Store on i Phone or the Google Play store on Android by searching for 'The Guardian'. If you already have the Guardian app, make sure you’re on the most recent version. In the Guardian app, tap the Profile settings button at the top right, then select Notifications. Turn on sport notifications. Mc Queen came to prominence in England following his move to Leeds from St Mirren in 1972, helping the Yorkshire club to league title success in 1973-74 and playing a key role in their run to the European Cup final in 1975. Mc Queen then joined Leeds’s arch-rivals Manchester United in 1978 and went on to win the FA Cup in 1983. Injury deprived him of a World Cup appearance in 1978 after he had been included in Scotland’s squad having made his senior international debut in 1974 against Belgium. After retiring as a player, Mc Queen had a brief spell as Airdrie manager and coach at former club St Mirren, and spent five years as coach at Middlesbrough under Bryan Robson until 2001. He went on to become a pundit on Scottish TV and on Sky Sports. The inquest was told how after his death Mc Queen’s family donated his brain to Prof Willie Stewart – a consultant neuropathologist at the Queen Elizabeth university hospital in Glasgow, who has conducted extensive research into brain injury in footballers and rugby players. Stewart told the inquest that he found evidence of CTE – a brain disorder linked to repeated head impacts – and vascular dementia. Stewart agreed with Rawlinson, for the Mc Queen family, when he asked whether the CTE “more than minimally, negligibly or trivially” contributed to the death and that “heading the ball” contributed to the CTE. The professor said that the only evidence available was Mc Queen’s “high exposure” to heading a football.