The game will still be heading for a problem
A recent celebration of the career, and grief for the sad early demise, of the prolific former West Bromwich Albion centre-forward Jeff Astle raised once again the grievous problems of the effect of heading on footballers’ brains.
Not for the first time, I suggest that any investigation into the effects of heading on footballers’ brains would be
expensive and futile. Nobby Stiles, Ray Wilson and Martin Peters, World Cup 1966 winners all, are now alas suffering from dementia and it is reasonable to suppose that it was heading that did the damage.
The only obvious way to put an end to such disasters is plainly to prohibit heading throughout the game, but can you for a moment imagine that happening?
I can see only one valid way of possible compromise. If medical investigation can show that certain brains are more susceptible to damage from heading than others, then such players could be prohibited from heading. But where in the heat of a game would that leave them?
Could you ever imagine heading being prohibited?