Nearly two years after her father's death, Sky Sports' Hayley McQueen, the daughter of Manchester United legend Gordon, revealed she has still not received a death certificate
14:18, 27 May 2025
Gordon McQueen, Manchester United defender, Gordon McQueen won 30 Scotland international caps between 1974-1981
Gordon McQueen, who won the FA Cup with Manchester United in 1983, passed away in 2023(Image: Bob Thomas Sports Photography via Getty Images)
Sky Sports presenter Hayley McQueen has revealed she has still not received a death certificate for her late father Gordon.
McQueen, 45, announced in June 2023 that Gordon, who was best known for his playing days at Manchester United and the Scotland national team, had passed away aged 70. Two years earlier, the former central defender was diagnosed with vascular dementia.
At the start of the year, it was announced that there would be an inquest into McQueen's death at Northallerton Coroners Court, where they would hear the impact of heading the ball during his career - and would also consider how many of the goals he scored were headers. Hayley and her family have previously expressed their fear that heading footballs may have had a hand in him developing dementia.
Around five months after the inquest was called, Hayley has revealed that her family are yet to receive a death certificate. Appearing on the Ainslie + Ainslie Performance People podcast, McQueen replied: "Yes. We are still waiting for the cause of death and whether it’s ruled as industrial disease."
Hayley reached out to Professor William Stewart, a leading researcher in brain health who was heavily involved in the 2021 parliamentary inquiry into the link between sport and long-term brain injury, to offer her father's brain for medical science, soon after his passing. She added: "I was in contact with him before and we discussed a few things.
"I’d had to get quite a matter of fact about things, but I was like 'Oh, my dad does want to donate his brain to medical science’. We did that privately, but our local coroner determined that he wanted to open an inquest because on my Dad’s death certificate - well he doesn’t have a death certificate - the interim cause of death, when you’re issued a certificate to be able to deal with banking issues and things like that, was down as pneumonia.
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"My dad did not die from pneumonia. He was bed bound and because of the liquid intake, it was a complication. Eventually, that took him."
Former Manchester United player Gordon McQueen. Issue date: Tuesday February 23, 2021. PA Photo. Gordon McQueen joins some famous names who are battling dementia. See PA Story SOCCER Dementia Players
McQueen was diagnosed with vascular dementia in 2021(Image: PA)
Gordon McQueen, Manchester United defender, Gordon McQueen won 30 Scotland international caps between 1974-1981
McQueen also played for Leeds United and St. Mirren(Image: Bob Thomas Sports Photography via Getty Images)
Explaining what Professor Stewart found, Hayley said: "Everything points towards the heading of the football. There is CTE (Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy) that professor Willie Stewart found. He’s just the most wonderful and incredible man, and he sat with us and broke down everything in the post-mortem.”
In 2019, the Football Association and the Professional Footballers' Association carried out their own research and concluded that ex-football players are three-and-a-half times more likely to die from degenerative brain diseases.
In terms of the inquest into McQueen's death, the brief hearing stated that they could not decide on a date, as they were unable to locate his medical records between 1972 and 1995. Coroner Jon Heath said he would need to locate the records from that time period before they could proceed.
Hayley McQueen on the beach with her late father Gordon McQueen
McQueen donated her father's brain to medical science(Image: INSTAGRAM/mcqueenhayley)
There has been no indication of when the inquest will be able to take place. However, after her conversation with Professor Stewart, Hayley and her family became even more determined to find out more information about the death.
She said: "It spurred us on. We were like 'Okay, we’re going to fight this fight’. We haven’t done it for any kind of litigation, we just want information.
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"I would love to know that, if they think it was from the heading of the football, that the information was really powerful, to make the authorities and people in football really start to pay attention to the fact that you can get brain damage from heading a football."