Dementia from headers found in 2nd footballer
Brain test proves how game hit wing-half Rod
It was brutal. They’d chuck medicine balls at their heads in training to build neck muscles PENNY TAYLOR ROD’S WIDOW ON HIS TOUGH PLAYING CAREER
A SECOND British footballer has been proven to have a form of dementia linked to heading the ball.
It comes 16 years after a landmark case involving West Brom legend Jeff Astle.
The brain of former Portsmouth, Gillingham and Bournemouth wing-half Rod Taylor was donated to scientists analysing the risks of a career in the sport.
His family were convinced that Rod’s long playing career caused his decline which left him unable to speak, swallow or recognise his family.
Neuropathologist Dr Willie Stewart looked at the brain and has confirmed Rod, who died earlier this year, aged 74, had the brain disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy.
Centre forward Astle was diagnosed with CTE in a postmortem after his death at 59 in 2002. A coroner blamed his CTE on blows to the head.
Rod, from Dorset, played during the same period as Jeff, and carried on in non-league until he was 50. Rod’s widow Penny said: “It was brutal. They would chuck medicine balls at their heads in training to build their neck muscles.
“He would be stitched up at half-time after collisions and was once unconscious on the pitch and they brought him back on.”
With hundreds of NFL players in America having been diagnosed with CTE in recent years, football had been warned Astle could represent the tip of an iceberg.
Rod was also diagnosed with dementia “with Lewy bodies”. This typically impairs movement, judgment, sleep and can cause hallucinations and was linked last week in new research to contact sports such as football.
CTE often affects memory and behaviour and can only be caused by head trauma.
Rod, a builder and decorator after his footie career, first showed signs of mental decline in his mid-60s. His daughter, Rachel, said: “Mum struggled on, I don’t know how. He would fall, be up all night, get hallucinations. It was 24/7. “He hated what was happening. When things were getting bad he would point at his head with his two fingers as if to imitate a gun.” CTE can only be diagnosed by dissecting the brain after the victim’s death. Dr Stewart recently launched a programme with Glasgow University for players to donate brains. Penny added: “It was a relief when Dr Stewart rang with the results and said, ‘There was nothing you or anybody could have done’.” Dr Stewart said: “Patients like Rod and their families are crucial to our understanding of a complex issue.”