‘Startling’ figures lay bare dementia problem
A NEW study of top-flight footballers playing in the 1965-66 season has found neurodegenerative diseases were a factor in 42 per cent of the deaths among that group of players so far.
This shocking new statistic confirms professional footballers are dying of dementia at a rate of between three and four times the general population.
The new research, undertaken by The Mail on Sunday, will only add momentum to the campaign for further investigation into the dangers of playing the game, and heading in particular.
The conclusions of the MoS’s work have been described as ‘startling’ and ‘important’ by Dr Willie Stewart, the world’s foremost expert on the link between football and brain injury-related deaths.
Dr Stewart, a consultant neuropathologist based in Glasgow, led the biggest study to date on the subject, published a year ago, comparing the causes of death of 7,676 former Scottish male professional footballers born between 1900 and 1976 against more than 23,000 individuals from the general population.
The new MoS study focused specifically on the pool of 475 first-team players at the 22 clubs in England’s top division in 1965-66. Of that group, 185 have died to date, and at least 79 of those, or 42 per cent, have died with neurodegenerative illnesses or conditions associated with traumatic brain injury. The vast majority
of the 79 died from Alzheimer’s disease or other dementias, or Parkinson’s disease or related disorders, or motor neurone disease.
When a cause of a death was a different condition, for example cancer, but a player had endured years of dementia, the MoS included those players as having died with (if not of) dementia.
‘That (42 per cent) is startling and should be an eye-opener for the problem football has,’ Dr Stewart told the MoS. ‘The detail of your study is important. Just because somebody died from a pulmonary embolism didn’t mean they didn’t have dementia. One of the arguments used by critics of (our) work (published a year ago) — and these critics invariably come from within football — is that we were looking specifically at Scottish players. Your findings are important as the data set is from England. And let’s not forget it was through an English footballer, Jeff Astle, that we proved a link between football and irreparable brain damage.’
Astle, who died aged 59 in 2002, became a landmark case in the fight for the truth after his brain was re-examined in 2014 by Dr Stewart, who found Astle had in fact died of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). Dr Stewart was introduced to Astle’s family by journalist Sam Peters of the Mail on Sunday.
This newspaper began campaigning in 2013 for more research into the effects of concussion in rugby, and then into dementia in football. Seven years on, awareness is widespread and campaigning ever more urgent, not least by the MoS and a powerful new intervention by the Daily Mail.
Key findings from the new MoS study show 42 per cent of deaths link to neurodegenerative illness and traumatic brain injury, with at least 25 of the 290 players still alive having dementia. That figure is certainly higher in reality. Many clubs, associations and individuals told us they know of cases not in the public domain but wanted to keep the details private. Of the 79 players known to have died with neurodegenerative conditions, the average age of death was 74. This too is shocking. The chances of a British man dying of such a cause (across all age groups) is about 13 per cent. Of England’s 22-man squad that won the 1966 World Cup, 13 have died, six (46 per cent) with Alzheimer’s or dementia. ‘That’s high,’ says Dr Stewart. ‘No matter how you crunch the numbers, the chances of a pro footballer dying with a neurodegenerative disease is 3.5 to 4.5 more likely than the general population. In a squad of 22 you might expect two or three. We’re at six and will end up in double figures.
‘The frustration is this has been staring the sport in the face for decades. It’s taken until 2019 and 2020 to acknowledge. And still the game isn’t moving forward on the issue.
‘Rugby has moved on considerably and they don’t even have the data and evidence football has. Sam Peters and the Mail on Sunday (concussion campaign from 2013) was at the heart of that. Simply put, football has to move into the 21st century on this.’