Just seen David May on BBC breakfast this morning let slip that Deano has stage 2 dementia caused by repetitive head injuries from football. Not sure she should have shared that but he did! Thoughts with Dean and his family.
Dementia is a syndrome (a group of related symptoms) associated with an ongoing decline of brain functioning. There are many different causes of dementia, and many different types.
It was a strange thing to bring up by David May,he just came right out with it and said Deano had stage 2 Dementia?
Nobby Stiles lad John was on talking about it and he said they'd donated Nobby's brain to some or other foundation after his passing.It was discovered that he had 'Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy ' which is a direct result of heading a ball/receiving blows to the head?
Heading is pretty mad when you think about it. We're taught as children, sort of brainwashed in a way, to not fear it because it can't hurt you. Then as an adult you learn about the associated long-term health risks and think, well yeah that's obvious actually isn't it. Of course repeatedly banging your head against something is going to bring health risks. Football would be awkward without heading, but we probably do need to have a conversation about whether we should really be doing it.
Would be interesitng how itd change football Tall centre backs a thing of the past? Theyd become small zippy players
CTE is now being treated as a huge deal in US contact sports, such as NFL and WWE (yes, i know it's not real, don't be that guy). After wrestler Chris Benoit murdered his family and offed himself, the Sports Legacy Institute tested his brain and despite only being 40yo, his brain condition resembled an 85yo Alzheimers patient. His finisher was a diving headbutt from the top rope. I know there's been talk of protecting kids who play footy by limiting the number of headers thay're allowed to do in practice, and it's been called "woke" etc. Having seen a family member stuck in a loop as every 30 minutes she constantly re-remembers that her husband of 60 years had recently died, I wouldn't wish that **** on my worst enemy.
A big soaking wet leather football back in the day inflicted a bit of pain if you never connected correctly with it...It was like heading a medicine ball.
My late Father had dementia,sad to watch,he'd repeat things regularly.On other occasions he'd come away with some absolute belters that would cause a chuckle or two.
Yes - from U11s next season heading banned I think....already banned at u8 level this season and we're not allowed to train or teach the kids to head in training. That last point I do find difficult, I coach an u11s team playing 9 a side, and whilst you don't want kids heading it all the time, I feel that teaching kids the right way to head a ball will help to avoid injury later on as they get older and bigger
With all the current research on CTE, there’s only a few ways this can go in football. It’s either: 1. try to develop footballs in a way that minimises trauma to the head using certain materials and engineering 2. change the rules and effectively abolish corners and other set-pieces and make short goal kicks mandatory 3. do nothing at all
