In the news recently, footballers who played with ‘classic’ footballs (a rubber inflatable bladder encased in brown leather panels) like Jeff Astle, have allegedly developed dementia due to heading footballs throughout their careers.
Professional footballers would often take part in certain training drills, which could include persistent heading of the ball and corner practice.
We’ve already known for some time that major head injuries can cause dementia or Alzheimer’s in the future – such as a significant knock to the head that leads to the loss of consciousness and causes changes to the brain and acute effects on people’s memory, orientation and behaviour.
In football, instead of there being one big blow there are multiple tiny hits that cause no loss of consciousness but may still have side effects. This multiple-hit cumulative effect can be caused by heading the ball.
Factions of the football community are taking this problem very seriously, and are considering banning headers for children altogether to make it safer for the next generation. Other parts of the community are trying to ignore the problem and pass it off as being irrelevant, as they no longer use the old-fashioned leather balls.
However, there are still lots of people who believe it wasn’t just the ball and that it was the entire concept of heading the ball that was the issue. If you looked at the 1966 World Cup team, you would see how many of them have dementia compared to the number who develop it in the general public. 36.7% of the players of the England 1966 football team went on to develop dementia, compared to the 5-8% of the general public aged 60 and above.
Other contact sports
In other contact sports like rugby union, rugby league and hockey, this can occur – although some sports are working against this problem, such as American football. Heading in this sport is completely banned, and there are lots of protective gear requirements, such as crash helmets.
This approach has been implemented over time due to the sheer number of athletes obtaining head, neck and spinal injuries.
Injuries regularly occurring in bodily regions are common, because in the NFL ‘receivers’ turn to locate and catch the ball, whilst opposing players tackle them while their bodies are uncomfortably contorted.
One-on-one sports
Serious head injuries also naturally occur in one-on-one sports, such as boxing, due to the multiple punches you take to the head. This is especially common in bare-knuckle boxing, which is extremely dangerous.
The good news is that the boxing community is actively seeking solutions to these problems, such as giving amateur boxers the support of a head guard and giving all boxers gumshields to protect their teeth.
Related articles and further reading:
NHS Blog – Does playing football cause dementia?
NFL Concussions: Fast Facts
NCBI study
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Article by Joseph Fieldhouse
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