AFLW player Heather Anderson has become the first female athlete to be diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), the degenerative brain disease linked to repeated head knocks. Anderson – who took her own life last year at 28yo – played for the Adelaide Crows for 8 games in 2017 and sustained several head knocks during her career, including one confirmed concussion. After her death, her family decided to donate her brain to the Australian Sports Brain Bank so more research could be done. Professor Michael Buckland said he found 3 definite lesions consistent with “low-stage CTE” that was no different to “dozens of male cases I’ve seen.” Almost a million women and girls play some form of contact sport in Australia, and there are concerns they face double the risk of concussion and developing brain injuries. The major codes have been told to consider Anderson’s case a wake-up call.