A lawyer for Aaron Hernandez said Thursday that the former NFL player — who committed suicide in prison — had suffered from a “severe” case of the degenerative brain disease CTE.

The attorney said that an autopsy showed that Hernandez, who died at 27 while serving life in prison, had a disease common in players called chronic traumatic encephalopathy.

A lawyer for Aaron Hernandez said Thursday that the former NFL player — who committed suicide in prison — had suffered from a “severe” case of the degenerative brain disease CTE.

The attorney said that an autopsy showed that Hernandez, who died at 27 while serving life in prison, had a disease common in football players called chronic traumatic encephalopathy.

The lawyer, Jose Baez, said in a news conference Thursday, that researchers determined it was “the most severe case they had ever seen in someone of Aaron’s age,” according to The New York Times.

CTE can be caused by repeated head trauma and can only be diagnosed in an autopsy.

Hernandez was serving a life term for the killing of a semi-pro football player Odin Lloyd in 2012.

The former star NFL player was found hanging in his prison cell earlier this year.

Hernandez would join other NFL players who have been determined to have the disease after committing suicide: Dave Duerson, Junior Seau, Andre Waters, Ray Easterling and Jovan Belcher, according to the Times.

Seau and Duerson deliberately shot themselves in the chest so that researchers would be able to examine their brains, the Times said.

In addition, Hernandez’s fiancee, Shayanna Jenkins-Hernandez, filed a lawsuit against the Patriots and the NFL — claiming they did not warn him about the brain disease, according to TMZ.

“Aaron had stage 3 CTE usually seen in players with a median age of death of 67 years,” Jenkins told the site.

Filing on behalf of her daughter Jenkins seeks “redress for the loss of parental consortium… based on the negligent conduct of Defendants that deprived her of the companionship and society of her father, Aaron Hernandez.”