Photo: Fred Kfoury III/Icon Sportswire/Corbis/Icon Sportswire via Getty
JournalistGrant Wahl’s body has been returned to the United States after his death in Qatar, the U.S. State Department has confirmed.
“At this point, we will defer to the family to speak to the next steps,” Price said during the press briefing. “I know that they have spoken publicly to their wishes and of course, we worked very closely with the family over the past 48 hours to help fulfill those wishes.”
The journalist’s brother, Eric Wahl, has been offering additional updatesvia his Twitter account. Most recently, Eric said he and Grant’s wife, Dr. Céline Gounder, will take Grant’s body for a “medical examination” and “autopsy.”
Eric has asked his Twitter followers to “please keep” Grant’s wife in their thoughts as she prepared to identify his body on Monday. Eric said he wasn’t able to join her in making the ID of his brother’s body. “I couldn’t do it, for my own sanity,“he wrote on Twitter.
Price previously stated that his team was “engaged with senior Qatari officials” to ensure that Wahl’s “family’s wishes are fulfilled” and his body be returned.
Per ESPN, in aprevious statement, the World Cup organizing committee said, “We are in touch with the U.S. Embassy and relevant local authorities to ensure the process of repatriating the body is in accordance with the family’s wishes.”
Secretary Antony Blinkenshared the following statementregarding Wahl and his work on Monday.
“I so appreciated Grant Wahl, whose writing captured not only the essence of the beautiful game but also the world around it. I send my deepest condolences to his family, and thank our Embassy team and Qatari partners who worked together so effectively to fulfill their wishes.”
Michael Loccisano/Getty
Wahl, 48, was covering the Argentina versus Netherlands game at the FIFA World Cup on Friday when he is reported to have collapsed during the match. A cause of death has not been revealed.
Gounder thanked supporters for their kind words about her husband after his sudden and tragic death.
“I am so thankful for the support of my husband @GrantWahl’s soccer family & of so many friends who’ve reached out tonight,” Gounder wrote on Twitter. “I’m in complete shock.”
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While Grant’s cause of death remains unknown, Eric said Friday he suspects it was the result of foul play. Grant himself said earlier in the week that he had come down with “a case of bronchitis.”
Just a day before his death, on his Thursday episode of hisFútbol with Grant Wahlpodcast, Grant said that he hadn’t been feeling his best covering recent matches.
“My body told me, even after the U.S. went out, ‘Dude, you are not sleeping enough,’ and it rebelled on me. So I’ve had a case of bronchitis this week,” he said. “I’ve been to the medical clinic at the media center twice now, including today. I’m feeling better today, I basically canceled everything on this Thursday, that I had, and napped.”
source: people.com
