Deeper research into link required

FURTHER research will have to be undertaken before a definitive relationship can be drawn between football and Alzheimer’s Disease.

Former Dunfermline and Aberdeen boss Jimmy Calderwood revealed yestersday that he has been living with the condition for two years.

He is the latest high-profile Scottish football figure to be diagnosed with dementia following the cases involving Celtic legend Billy McNeil, 1960s Rangers icon Jimmy Millar and former Dundee United star Frank Kopel.

And Jim Pearson, director of policy and research at Alzheimer Scotland, admits there is insufficient evidence at present to associate the game with the neurodegenerative disease.

Pearson said: “This is obviously something that is becoming more and more a common question because there are more sportspeople who are coming out and sharing their stories.

“We have worked with partners within football and the research community and we’ve looked at the current research.

“We can’t say with any confidence that there is evidence that supports this conclusion.

“The research that has been done has been insufficient. It is retrospective and probably lacks any robustness.

“We need to learn more about it. Alzheimer Scotland is working around those issues, trying to build up as much robust evidence as we can.

“We don’t know if there are a higher proportion of footballers getting dementia than there are in the general population.

“Although we know it is a question on everybody’s lips.

“We also need to get better funding for development because, quite frankly, dementia is underfunded in general because we don’t know some of the causes of Alzheimer issues never mind this.”