Female footballers ‘ at greater risk of dementia from heading the ball’

FEMALE FOOTBALLERS who head the ball could be putting themselves at even greater risk of dementia than male players, according to academics.

The University of East Anglia is running a project to monitor exfootballers for early signs of dementia.

More than 35 former professional players have now signed up including former Norwich City and Huddersfield Town striker Iwan Roberts, and Jeremy Goss, formerly of Norwich, and Crystal Palace hero Mark Bright.

But the research team is now looking for amateur and professional female players to take part too.

Research from the University of Glasgow has shown that retired male players are around five times more likely to suffer from Alzheimer’s disease compared with the average person.

But little is known about when players start to show signs of the deteriorating brain health and even less about the effects in women as the majority of research has focussed on men.

Dr Michael Grey, from UEA’s School of Health Sciences, said: “We know that there is greater risk of dementia in former professional footballers, and we think this is related to repetitive heading of the ball. We know very little about how this affects female players, but we think female players are at even greater risk of developing sport- related dementia than male players.”

The team is looking for former footballers, both men and women, over 40 to take part. Visit www. scoresproject. org.