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Abstract
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As science uncovers ever clearer links between concussion and neurodegenerative disease, football is heading for a major decision that would save lives at the expense of a cornerstone of the beautiful game.
Denis Law was such a gifted footballer that he was the only British player who would have made it into Brazil’s national team, the footballing legend Pelé reportedly said. Law’s ability to trap the ball, slink past defenders, and rifle in goals on the turn or the volley made him the only Scottish player to win the coveted Ballon d’Or, and he is the country’s greatest goal scorer of all time.
But it was his heading of the ball that Law believes made him the latest in a wave of high profile footballers to be diagnosed with dementia.1
On 19 August, Law announced that he was the sixth member of Manchester United’s 1968 European Cup winning side to be diagnosed with dementia. Two of Law’s Manchester United team mates, Nobby Stiles and Bobby Charlton, also make up the five players in England’s 1966 World Cup team to have been diagnosed.2
Between 5% and 8% of the population over the age of 60 has some form of dementia, according to the World Health Organization. But seven years after former England striker Jeff Astle was declared the first footballer to have died from heading a ball, studies suggest that the rate in footballers could be much higher.
Says Wille Stewart, a neuropathologist at the University of Glasgow, “I think football has to ask the difficult questions: is heading absolutely necessary to the game? Is potential exposure to degenerative brain disease absolutely necessary?” ...
Language: en |