Opinion | Football must resist calls from scaremongers for heading ban after brain damage study
Investigating link with dementia is a noble cause and FA should provide as much help as they can to sufferers but more concrete evidence is needed
Professional footballers may be at extra risk of brain damage because they head a football too often during their careers.
That’s according to the most detailed British research ever undertaken into dementia among retired footballers. The study concluded the condition may be connected to repeated impacts caused by thousands of headers over a career.
The inquiry carried out post-mortem examinations on six players who suffered dementia. Four of the six had suffered chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a condition often found in boxers.
The research follows the recent sad tale of England 1996 World Cup hero Nobby Stiles, one of at least four members of the Three Lions winning team to have also suffered from dementia.
Stiles developed the disease at the age of 60, and his teammates also started suffering the condition later in life.
