Former professional footballers are three-and-a-half times more likely to die from dementia and other serious neurological diseases, a new landmark study has discovered.
The research, funded by the Football Association and Professional Footballers’ Association, made public for the first time on Monday has confirmed a link between the national sport and a number of brain-related illnesses.
The 22-month study conducted by the University of Glasgow’s Brain Injury Group also established a five-fold increase in the risk of Alzheimer’s, a four-fold increase in Motor Neurone disease and a two-fold increase in Parkinson’s.
However, the report could not establish a link between such brain illnesses and repeated concussions, heading older leather footballs, or other factors.
The FA, though, have confirmed it would be setting up a task force to examine the potential causes more comprehensively.
Sportsmail columnist Chris Sutton, whose father Mike – a former professional footballer – is suffering from a degenerative disease of the brain called chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) caused by repetitive brain trauma, has been vocal in condemning the PFA’s lack of work in trying to establish links between dementia and football.
‘If Gordon Taylor (outgoing PFA chief executive) had anything about him he would apologise to all his union members and their families who he has failed,’ Sutton posted on Twitter.
Former England and West Bromwich Albion striker Jeff Astle (right) died in 2002.
He was only 59 but doctors said he had the brain of a 90-year-old after suffering from chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).
CTE is a progressive, degenerative brain disease found in individuals with a history of head injury, often as a result of multiple concussions.
An inquest ruled Astle died from dementia caused by heading footballs – the first British professional footballer to be officially confirmed to have done so.
The Jeff Astle gates outside West Brom’s Hawthorns stadium: Astle died from dementia, a disease that was ruled to have been caused by repetitively heading leather footballs
Astle, who was left unable to recognise his own children, once commented that heading a football was like heading ‘a bag of bricks’.
His family set up the Jeff Astle Foundation in 2015 in order to raise awareness of brain injury in sport. His daughter Dawn said ‘the game that he lived for killed him’.
Danny Blanchflower, who captained Tottenham Hotspur during their double winning season of 1961, died after suffering from Alzheimer’s disease in 1993. He was 67.
His death has also been linked to heading the heavy, leather balls of the 1940s and 50s, along with fellow Tottenham players Dave Mackay, Peter Baker and Ron Henry.
HOW CAN PLAYING FOOTBALL LEAD TO DEMENTIA?
Footballers suffer repeated blows to their head, mainly through heading leather footballs and colliding with other players.
Leading scientists have found such injuries can lead to chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a crippling condition which can cause dementia.
Former England and West Bromwich Albion striker Jeff Astle died in 2002, aged 59, from CTE. He was left unable to recognise his own children.
An inquest ruled that Astle’s CTE was caused by heading footballs – the first British professional footballer to be officially confirmed to have done so.
Three of the nine surviving members of England’s 1966 winning World Cup team have Alzheimer’s – Martin Peters, Nobby Stiles and Ray Wilson.
Stiles’ son two years ago criticised the FA for failing to properly investigate a link between the sport and degenerative brain disease.
A landmark study of 14 retired footballers by University College London experts in 2017 found four had a condition CTE.
The link between head trauma and CTE is widely established in boxing, rugby and American football, where such injuries are common.
Former New England Patriots star Aaron Hernandez had CTE when he killed himself in April at the age of 27 while serving a life sentence for murder.
Source:Daily Mail
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