THE DISEASE HAUNTING OUR GAME
Undeniable link to disorder that has been downplayed for so long
Protocols will now be reinforced and tightened
IT IS a remarkable headline statistic with which to hit football and appears to answer the key question. Is there a link between playing professional football and dying from dementia?
Yes. Emphatically.
In all, 222 deaths among the Scottish ex-pros who were investigated were put down to dementia.
Those players were shown to be three-and-a-half times more likely to die from degenerative neurocognitive disease than their peers.
A link that had been downplayed for so long is now undeniable.
But the publication of the study by Dr William Stewart in the New England Journal of Medicine raised more questions than answers.
Is the dementia death-rate increased because of the number of concussions suffered by footballers? Is it because concussion on the field is still so badly managed?
Could dementia be caused by heading a ball too many times? Or perhaps just heading an old-fashioned ball when it was soaking wet?
And why did all the figures being presented at Wembley yesterday come from Scotland?
The last question is the easiest to answer. Apparently, NHS Scotland’s newly-digitised records are the only ones to allow this sort of numbercrunching. Add to that a list of former players lovingly compiled by an anonymous football ‘super-fan’ from north of the border and the crossreferencing is complete.
For the first time, the capability was there to look into this matter properly.
The report’s authors make no bones about their inability to answer any of those other questions.
Their brief was merely to investigate whether football had a case to answer, not what that case actually might be.
So, today, we have moved one tiny step forward.
Finally, historically-thinking, the link is plain to see. What, though, of the future?What needs to be done?
In a word... nothing. At least, not yet. More work will be put into finding the precise reason for this statistical anomaly.
Goalkeepers, apparently, are no less susceptible to dying of dementia than outfield players, but less than half of them have been prescribed antidementia drugs than their team-mates.
Meanwhile, protocols will be reinforced and tightened – although a lot of it is already being done, driven
by anecdotal evidence and haunting images rather than dry academic research.
Seeing Jeff Astle, a master craftsman with his head, in his final sad years first gave this issue impetus.
Alan Shearer then fronted a TV documentary on the subject recently to give dementia renewed prominence.
There were also the worrying scenes of a clearly-traumatised Jan Vertonghen being patched up and sent back in to Champions League action for Tottenham last season after a sickening clash of heads.
There are certainly things football needs to look at before waiting for the irrefutable physical evidence that confirms what is triggering this phenomenon.
The move to small-sided youth games with smaller goals reduces the number of headers at those levels to barely one-and-a-half per game, according to FA research.
And, at top levels, playing out from the back has curtailed a long-ball approach, with the need for a heading expert up front dropping considerably.
What is certain is that we cannot wrap our kids in cotton wool. Even the report’s authors do not want that.
Those ex-pros in Scotland had lived for three-and-a-quarter years longer than average, with less heart disease and lung cancer.
Playing sport continues to be good for you. Even football.