What to know about an aortic aneurysm, Grant Wahl's cause of death

Grant Wahl's wife, Dr. Celine Gounder, revealed to CBS News on Wednesday that the renowned soccer journalist died at the World Cup in Qatar on Friday due to an aortic aneurysm that ruptured.

"It's just one of these things that had been likely brewing for years, and for whatever reason it happened at this point in time," Gounder told "CBS Mornings" co-host Gayle King in her first interview since her husband's death at the age of 49.

An aortic aneurysm is a balloon-like bulge in the aorta, which is the body's largest artery — "sort of the trunk of all the blood vessels," said Gounder, who is an infectious disease specialist and CBS News medical contributor. An aortic aneurysm can "dissect" or — as in Wahl's case — rupture.