A new study is to be launched to investigate ways of reducing the incidence of professional footballers getting long-term brain injuries and suffering dementia later in life.
The study will be led by Dr Willie Stuart, a consultant neuropathologist at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow and a pioneer in the field. His previous research showed that ex-professionals are three and a half times more likely to die of dementia than the general cohort of the population.
The new study, named BrainHOPE, will last for four years and has been funded to the tune of GBP 1.3 million. It aims to build on that earlier research. It is being funded by the FA and FIFA jointly, and aims to recruit 120 former professional footballers, who will agree to undergo an extensive range of neurological tests.
These will include brain imaging and tests which will compare the “brain health” of the former professionals with 700 control subjects of the same age taken from the general population.
It is hoped that BrainHOPE can identify ways of detecting problems early on in a player’s career, and, more importantly, possible ways to try and reduce the risks of dementia for former players.
Last July, new guidelines were issued which said that English professional footballers are limited to 10 higher force headers a week in training. The following month, another study was published which showed that defenders are more likely to later suffer from dementia than other positions on the pitch.
The Professional Footballers’ Association in England earlier this year set up a dedicated care department for former players suffering from neurodegenerative disease (NDD).
The problem in England first came to light after an inquest into the death of former West Brom striker Jeff Astle found that repeated heading of heavy footballs had contributed to trauma of his brain.
Since then, there have been numerous cases linked to the same cause. At least five members of England’s World Cup winning team of 1966 developed dementia, leading to the death of four of them – Ray Wilson, Martin Peters, Nobby Stiles, and Jackie Charlton. Last year, the family of Jackie’s brother Bobby, confirmed that he was also suffering from it.