Ibrox boss questions child ban on heading
RANGERS boss Steven Gerrard has said heading the ball “still has a place” in the grassroots game as a child ban moves forward.
The Scottish Football Association is reported to be close to imposing such a ban in training for the under-12s after a study found a strong link between football and dementia. A timescale for introducing it is unclear.
The United States has had a similar ban in place since 2015 but the SFA’s move would make Scotland the first European country to impose such a restriction.
It follows the publication of a study by the University of Glasgow last year which found footballers are three-and-a-half times more likely to die of a neurodegenerative disease than age-matched non-players.
The SFA said it would finalise the proposals “in early course”.
Gerrard agrees work must continue to establish whether there is a link between playing the game and dementia, but he said he believes heading practice still has a place in grassroots football.
He said: “I used to love heading balls, probably from the age of four.
“So I wouldn’t take it away from them completely because they will be watching their heroes every day on the TV, heading and scoring goals.
“But you can certainly do things; you can help them by making the balls smaller or lighter, or doing heading in a different way, without using the heavy-case balls.”
Henry Simmons, chief executive of Alzheimer Scotland, said: “Alzheimer Scotland supports the decision of the Scottish FA to take this proactive measure to avoid any potential and unnecessary risk to young footballers.
“It is clear to us that this current announcement has been informed by the recent high quality evidence gathered by the FIELD study, which was led by Dr Willie Stewart.”
AGLASGOW mum-of-two is warning about the dangers of viral meningitis after her newborn son contracted it at only 12 weeks old.
Jill Doherty, 30, from Lenzie, first came into contact with the disease when her baby, Jack, fell ill in July.
“It was at the end of the weekend and Jack was really irritable,” Jill told the Glasgow Times.
“He had a high temperature, and was crying. Myself and my husband, Garry, took Jack to be checked out and the doctor found a rash but said it was just a virus and sent us home.
“By the Monday I knew something wasn’t right. He wasn’t taking any milk, his rash was getting bigger and he was still upset.
“We took him back to the out-ofhours and it was a different doctor, who, when she saw him straight away said that she wanted him checked out and told us to take him to the children’s hospital.”
In hospital, tests were run on Jack – including a lumbar puncture to check for bacterial meningitis.
“Looking back now I think now it is clear that people don’t know how painful it is. Jack couldn’t have his cannula fit into his hands or feet and so they had to fit it onto his head. It was just horrible.
“We couldn’t be in the room when they were doing the lumbar puncture for cleanliness reasons and there is nothing more horrible than hearing your baby crying in another room while going through big injections. He was put on drips immediately, and it was just a horrible experience.”
Jill and Garry waited for the results, but as time went on they started to feel reassured that their baby son didn’t have sepsis or bacterial meningitis, but instead was diagnosed with viral meningitis.
Initially we thought ‘At least it’s just viral meningitis’.
“But once home I finally took the time to sit down and read about viral meningitis – that was the point where it hit me: yes, he had ‘just viral meningitis’ and yes it’s less severe than bacterial meningitis, but he still had an