Astle welcomes heading ban in children’s training

COACHES HAVE been advised not to include heading in training at all for children of primary school age in England, Northern Ireland and Scotland to mitigate against any possible health risks.

The football associations of those three countries have updated their guidelines connected to heading the ball in training, with no heading at all in the foundation phase for primary school children and a “graduated approach” to introduce heading training at under-12 to under-16 level. There are no changes to heading in youth matches, where headers rarely occur.

The FIELD study, joint-funded by the English FA and the Professional Footballers’ Association and which was published in October last year, found that professional footballers were threeand-a-half times more likely to die of a neurodegenerative disease than age-matched members of the general population.

The study did not identify a cause for this increased risk, but repeated heading of a ball and other head injuries have been identified as possible factors. The associations have acted after consultation with the medical committee of European football’s governing body UEFA, which is expected to issue guidance across the continent later this year.

Dawn Astle, who has campaigned for restrictions to heading in training at all levels of the game, welcomed the news but said ultimately the authorities had to go further.

She said: “We’re all really pleased – it’s sensible following the results of the FIELD study.

“We must take early steps to avoid exposing children’s brains to risk of trauma and by saying there’s no heading in training for primary school children is a really sensible way to make the game we all love safer for all those involved.”

Astle’s father Jeff, who represented England at senior level and also served West Brom with great distinction, died in 2002 from chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) which the coroner ruled was caused by the repeated heading of footballs.

“For over-18s now there certainly should be some guidelines for training,” Astle added.

“I’ve always believed and my mum has always believed that my dad’s problems and what ended up killing him was the amount of heading of the ball he did in training.”

Coroner ruled in 2002 that his death was due to repeated heading of footballs.