Grant Wahl's brother Eric Wahl felt ‘obliterated’ as he had just divorced his love on day journo died

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He had sought treatment for what might have been bronchitis earlier in the week after complaining of respiratory issues. During the extra time of the game, Grant slumped in his seat in a section of Lusail Stadium designated for media and adjacent reporters and asked for help. Emergency personnel arrived very quickly, treated him on the scene for 20 to 30 minutes and then carried him away on a stretcher as per a Daily Mail report. He was transferred to Doha's Hamad General Hospital, according to the World Cup organizing committee but no cause of death was given at the time.

Posting on Twitter, Eric said: “In the span of a few years, I watched Celine's father die on a gurney, my mother died, my mother-in-law died, my father died; last month I had to put down my 19yr-old cat. Last Friday, I'd agreed to a divorce from the love of my life, & later that day, my brother died. I felt, feel, obliterated. Grant was my confidante, my champion, my friend, my defender, my brother & only sibling. Grant knew things that happened to me growing up gay in KS. We see your well wishes & kind words. We've read your own touching stories. We're grateful. We see the cruel comments, too. All I can say is we're just people trying our best to grieve under circumstances that put us on the spot. Grant knew my anxiety issues were a big reason why I never wanted a public spotlight, & the past week has been a media education for me. I'm sorry I didn't do a better job. Thank you to Grant's friends & colleagues who reached out. Thank you to the USMNT player who reached out.”

“As we grew up, Grant saw my discomfort in adolescence & my early 20s as I came to terms with being gay,” Eric wrote in reference to the assistance his brother provided him. He added: “He knew about the harassment & physical abuse I'd received & their effects on my psyche. He listened, he loved, he supported without question. And I felt so lucky. He cheered me through grad school graduations at ESU & the University of Idaho. I hosted Thanksgiving in my Moscow apartment one year for all of us. He & I had regular conversations about everything in our lives & our minds. We cried together & laughed together right into the week he left us.” After more than two decades of writing for Sports Illustrated, Grant launched his own website. During a period of heightened interest in soccer in America, he was a significant voice in raising awareness of soccer among Americans after the US hosted the 1994 World Cup.