[Devongone]

The centre pages of today's Daily Telegraph Sport section are given over to Ernie and the need for Football to do more about Dementia in former players.

So sad that a man so loved and admired no longer even realises the affection in which he is held.

[Lord Snooty]

What a sad story. Its scandalous, with all the billions sloshing around iin football these days, that none of it is put into care for ex players or research iinto brain diseases.

[themaclad]

Just read half the England World Cup winners also have dementia

[Devongone]

Frank Worthington insists he hasn't got dementia, but his daughterstrongly disagrees. H e was one of my heroes.

[themaclad]

Jeff Astle's death was linked to dementia

[bluepooch]

While it has not been proved that there is a link between heading the ball and dementia I do believe there is enough suspicion to warrant further investigation by the powers that be.Although the footie authorities probably have enough controversy at the moment to cope with.


My views are my own except when I'm proved wrong then they are someone else's .

[spireitematt]

While it has not been proved that there is a link between heading the ball and dementia I do believe there is enough suspicion to warrant further investigation by the powers that be.Although the footie authorities probably have enough controversy at the moment to cope with.


My views are my own except when I'm proved wrong then they are someone else's .

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2016...legendary/

I read somewhere that they do think there is a link but I'm guessing it won't just be football. What about Boxing or Rugby?

Gary Lineker apparently never headed the ball I wonder if that's why.

Pretty sad story about Ernie. Surprised the club haven't erected a statue or even named a stand after him, with him being the club's record goal scorer.

[St Charles Owl]

While I have no doubt that blows to the head can cause major medical issues, I also think we have to be careful not to claim that football players only get dementia becuase they played football!! There are millions of people from all walks of life who are suffering from dementia of some kind, my father and sister-in-law among them, and as far as I know they have never suffered from blows to the head. So far the number of footballers who have been known to suffer from this seems to be no higher than the normal averages you would find in society. I think there certainly needs to be more research but I would rather see that money spent on research on dementia as a whole, not on football in particular.

[Devongone]

I think football is awash with money. I think some of it should be pumped into dementia research. But it is a complex area with no clear relationship between cause and effect.

The football I started out heading was a lethal heavy object with a shoelace that left marks ....... I'm that old. Perhaps researchers should take that into account when talking about Jeff Astle (who had encephalopathy not dementia in any case) and the 1966 World Cup squad who started the same way as me.

Stan Bowyer has dementia, but headed the ball about as much as Gary Lineker.

There are loads of different kinds of dementia and Alzheimers is just one.

Heavy footballs were being headed from before 1900 until well into the 1960s, why wasn't there an epidemic of dementia cases in the keen footballers of 1902 in 1959? Does extended life-expectancy explain the appearance of this disease ..... or did we then just accept very old people went decidedly odd in their last few years?

[Lord Snooty]

Well it's just like owt else really. Science and research moves on and we get to know more of why and how these things happen.