Don’t let players suffer like my Dad
MY FATHER Vernon Gunner, a keen amateur footballer playing centre forward and centre half before and after the war, was diagnosed with Parkinson’s and pre-senile dementia. He died aged 60 in 1981. To see this former commando and sportsman deteriorate in such a manner was heart-wrenchingly sad. In the late 1990s, I read a newspaper article about Scottish footballer Billy McPhail going to a benefits tribunal claiming his trade had caused his dementia. Though his case failed, it struck a chord. I had watched my father play and remember rainy, windy days when a defensive header from him sounded like a cannon shot. I started to think there was a link between heading a ball and early-onset dementia. With the 2002 coroner’s verdict that West Bromwich Albion legend Jeff Astle’s dementia was an industrial injury linked to heading footballs, I thought it would only be a matter of time before the matter was tackled. How wrong I was! The supine attitudes of the Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA) and the Football Association (FA) are pathetic and scandalous. The approach seems to be, let’s kick the problem into the long grass and, ironically, keep our heads down and it might go away. Well done to Sportsmail for its campaign to tackle dementia in football. I was lucky to see England win the 1966 World Cup on TV. The sad and inevitable line of these star players prematurely shuffling off into the sunset is beyond tragic.
RICHARD GUNNER, Farnham, Surrey.
THE article on Burnley footballer Jimmy Robson’s battle with dementia is especially sad for those like me who supported the club in the 1950s and 1960s. Many clubs at that time were owned and run by local people — in Burnley’s case, by a local butcher, Bob Lord. Wages for players were capped, giving every club an equal chance to win leagues and trophies. This meant many players had to have a second job to make ends meet. When players retired, the most they could hope for was to buy a business. Of the 1959/60 team, Brian Miller bought a sweetshop, Adam Blacklaw a newsagent’s, John Connelly a fish and chip shop, while Jimmy McIlroy wrote a weekly column for the local newspaper. Of the 1959/60 team, seven have been affected by dementia. In those days, the ball was so much heavier so it is a surprise the effects of heading haven’t been recognised sooner. What is shocking is the way those like Jimmy Robson have been abandoned. It’s time for the PFA to step in and help support the generation who created the environment for today’s football millionaires.