Siobhan Cattigan, a Scottish rugby player, has died. She was only 26.
The Stirling Rugby Football Club first confirmed the saddening news in a statement on its website on Tuesday. According to the club, the athlete died on Friday, November 26.
It also recalled how Cattigan had been a huge part of the county rugby football club in the past years. It then expressed how its members would truly miss her since she was central to the development and rise of women’s rugby in the club.
It did not disclose Siobhan Cattigan’s cause of death. However, multiple internet users that she possibly suffered from sudden cardiac death, which most athletes suffered from.
According to the US National Library of Medicine’s National Institutes of Health, most SCDs in athletes begins due to their inherited cardiac conditions, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, and coronary artery anomalous origin.
Users questioned why there are so many healthy athletes that suddenly died in the past months.
One said, “Condolences to her family. Unfortunately it’s not as uncommon as you may think. E.g at least 12 fit & healthy young people die a week from cardiac deaths. @CRY_UK is a charity researching sudden cardiac death, campaigning for testing & carrying out screening programmes.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=En9RMqmHV6g
Still, the assumptions should still be taken with a grain of salt as none of her family members ever released a statement yet.
Meanwhile, the official Twitter account of Scottish Rugby issued a similar statement regarding the athlete’s death.
“Scottish Rugby is deeply saddened to hear of the tragic passing of Scotland International Siobhan Cattigan. The thoughts of all our people and players go out to Siobhan’s family, friends and many teammates at Stirling County and Scotland at this incredibly difficult time,” it went on.
Cattigan’s legacy
Before her death, Cattigan established an impressive 19 caps throughout her international career as one of the representatives of Scotland.
ESPN’s rugby dictionary explains that a player is technically awarded a cap whenever his/her national team competes against another national team.
On her Scotsman’s profile, the rugby star started showing interest in doing the spots when she was five years old. However, she stopped playing when she was 13.
A few years later, she attended the University of Stirling and began playing the game again before her international debut for Scotland during the 2018 Women’s Six Nations. Her team won against Wales at that time.
Cattigan was still able to compete this year, appearing at the 2021 Rugby World Cup in September.
Featured image courtesy of Reinhard Müller, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons