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A leading New Zealand rugby<\/a> player who had advocated for closer study of the connections between concussion and long-term brain injury has died at the age of 39. <\/p>\n Police<\/a> were called early Wednesday morning to the Nelson<\/a> home of Shane Christie, who played for the Highlanders in Super Rugby and for New Zealand Maori, where he was found dead.<\/p>\n The New Zealand Herald newspaper reported that his friends suspected Christie had taken his own life.<\/p>\n Police said \u201cthe death will be referred to the coroner and we have no further information or comment we can provide.\u201d<\/p>\n Christie suspected he was suffering from Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative brain disorder which has been linked in the U.S. to a number of suicides among players in the National Football League. The NFL in 2016 acknowledged a connection between football and CTE.<\/p>\n The condition can only be detected post-mortem. Christie had indicated he intended to leave his brain to researchers for study in the hope of making rugby a safer game.<\/p>\n \u201cWithout brain donations we\u2019re not going to be able to identify how long it takes to get this disease. It\u2019s important to help the research in New Zealand,\u201d Christie said in a recent interview.<\/p>\n