CNN —Grant Wahl, the American soccer reporter who collapsed and died while covering the World Cup in Qatar last week, died of an aortic aneurysm that ruptured, his wife, Dr. Celine Gounder, said Wednesday. Wahl, a longtime college basketball and soccer reporter for Sports Illustrated and for his own newsletter, collapsed while covering Friday’s Argentina-Netherlands match and was later declared dead. According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an aortic aneurysm is a balloon-like bulge in the aorta – the large artery that carries blood from the heart to the chest. CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta said an aortic aneurysm is generally rare and difficult to spot. He added that he sought help at the clinic at the World Cup media center, believing he had bronchitis.

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