I’m having my brain tested for dementia
GARY LINEKER
GARY Lineker say he is going for a brain test, fearing he may one day suffer with dementia because of the link to heading footballs.
He and Match Of The Day co-stars Alan Shearer and Ian Wright believe there is a good chance one of them will be struck by it.
Gary, 60, revealed: “I’ve thought about it a lot, and especially now with seeing so many footballers seemingly get dementia.
“I mean, the statistics are quite worrying.
“I’ve had conversations with Alan Shearer and Ian Wright and various others about, you know, the worry that come 10, 15 years it might happen to one of us. In fact, the odds suggest that it probably will happen to one of us, so it is concerning.”
The ex-Spurs and Barcelona ace fears he may follow England World Cup heroes Nobby Stiles and brothers Sir Bobby and Jack Charlton.
Sir Bobby’s condition was announced last November. The 83-year-old won three league titles, a European Cup and an FA Cup with United during 17 years at Old Trafford.
He was the fifth member of England’s 1966 World Cup-winning side to be diagnosed with dementia. In addition to his brother Jack, and Stiles, who both died last year, Martin Peters and Ray Wilson also had the condition. They died in 2019 and 2018 respectively.
A recent study found that former professional football players had a three-and-a-half times higher rate of death due to dementia than expected.
Last week former Manchester United and Leeds United defender Gordon McQueen became the latest reported ex-pro to be affected.
Gary, who last year called for a ban on heading in training, said: “I have regular health checks anyway, which includes the brain…so far everything is OK. I think I’ll have my triannual test this summer, after the Euros probably, and I will ask them to see if there’s anything they can establish around the brain, because I don’t see how, given the circumstances, any footballer wouldn’t be worried.”
Other high profile players hit by the illness include Celtic’s Billy McNeill and former Northern Ireland boss Billy Bingham.
Ex-West Brom and England forward Jeff Astle died in January 2002 aged 59 and later that year a landmark inquest ruling said his death was the result of an “industrial disease” resulting from heading footballs.
Football pundit and former Chelsea frontman Chris Sutton said he was considering suing the FA and the PFA after his dad Mike got dementia.
Mike, who like Chris played for Norwich City, died last Christmas aged 76 after his brain was ravaged by the condition.
A month before he died, his wife Josephine revealed they had visited a specialist in 2014 who said he had severe frontal and temporal lobe damage – caused by heading footballs and blows to the head.
Gary expressed his fears in a TalkSport radio documentary Dementia And Football, broadcast on Sunday – days after Parliament began an inquiry into the link between sport and longterm brain injury.