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'I no longer suspect foul play': Grant Wahl's brother Eric says cause of death was not pulmonary embolism

'The family will release a statement as to cause of death soon,' Eric Wahl wrote

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: Eric Wahl, the gay brother of slain journalist Grant Wahl, 49 who had accused the Qatar authorities of foul play in the soccer journalist's death has now retracted his statement by saying that they will share the details while ruling out PE (Pulmonary embolism) as the cause of his death. Eric's statements accusing Qatar authorities had created a furor on social media soon after Grant's sudden death.

Grant, a notable American journalist, died on December 10 after collapsing while covering the Argentina-Netherlands World Cup match. It was announced that he died of suspected cardiac arrest and was pronounced dead at Hamad General Hospital in Doha sending shock waves around the globe with many suspecting some foul play as the journalist had been detained briefly detained and refused entry to a World Cup match because he was wearing a rainbow t-shirt in support of LGBTQ rights.

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"The family will release a statement as to cause of death soon," Eric Wahl wrote on Twitter Tuesday morning. "I no longer suspect foul play. It was not PE [pulmonary embolism]." He had It followed the tweet which mentioned suspected PE as the cause, "It seems possible Grant experienced a pulmonary embolism & was in a non-shockable state".

Eric had stated in the immediate aftermath of Grant's death on Friday that he felt his brother "was killed." Grant was an award-winning sports journalist who had given major attention to migrant fatalities during the FIFA World Cup and had been imprisoned earlier in the tournament for wearing a rainbow jersey into a match. "My name is Eric Wahl. I live in Seattle, Washington, I am Grant Wahl's brother," Eric said in a video announcing his brother's death on Twitter Friday. "I am gay, I am the reason he wore the rainbow shirt to the World Cup. My brother was healthy, he told me he received death threats. I do not believe my brother just died. I believe he was killed, and I just beg for any help," some days ago he turned his Instagram private without sharing the reasons.

However, in a reply to a tweet, Eric apologized for his initial statement by saying that they stemmed from two reasons, "I apologize unequivocally. But my initial statement stemmed from 2 things, neither of which related to racism: concerning things Grant told me, and well-known corruption." It also comes after the family arranged an immediate autopsy in the US following the allegations of foul pay.

In a podcast before his untimely death, Wahl had said that he was coughing more often and that it felt like a death rattle, "Hopefully I will not cough during this podcast," Grant said. "I'm coughing a lot. Everyone's coughing here. This is by no means limited to me. So many journalists have got a crazy cough that sounds like a death rattle sometimes. The only thing that's surprising to me is, there isn't that much Covid here. I thought there'd be a real issue with that. We're not really seeing Covid cases, we're just seeing a lot of general sicknesses — coughing, colds. And I can't wait to be on the other side of what I have, but I'm going to be ready to go."

On Monday, the US State Department confirmed that Grant's body had returned to the US from Qatar. Eric said that the family would be taking it for a "medical examination" and "autopsy."