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ADELAIDE, Australia — The Australian Sports Brain Bank has diagnosed a former Australian rules football player with chronic traumatic encephalopathy in a landmark finding for female professional athletes. Heather Anderson, who played for Adelaide's championship-winning team in the Australian Football League Women's competition in 2017, was diagnosed with the degenerative brain disease linked to concussions. Researchers at the Australian Sports Brain Bank diagnosed Anderson as having had low-stage CTE and three lesions in her brain. Anderson died last November at the age of 28. CTE can only be diagnosed posthumously. It can cause memory loss, depression and violent mood swings in athletes, combat veterans and others who sustain repeated head trauma.
