[Football] Denis Law and dementia

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

Wonder how likely it is that we’ll see players wearing head protection within the next 10 years.

Ha, when the ball is coming down with snow on it and you have your mates either side of you shouting "let's have a winner", and there's a striker who's run round you a couple of times backing into you, you're not thinking what will be happening in 50 years

Solution to the unavoidable

 

[Icy Gull]

No worries. However, the point about there needing to be negligence on the part of the employer still stands.

Not wishing to labour the point, but can there be negligence if it was not a known condition from heading a ball at the time?

Where are the NSC legal people, don’t expect me to believe that we don’t have any on this board of many professions

 

[dangull]

Boxing and bare knuckle martial arts are still popular sports today, and the aim in that is to damage the brain of your opponent so that he cant stand for at least 10 seconds or hit the head a lot of times during a bout to win on points.

 

[timbha]

Quite.

With ciggies the companies actively stoked propaganda against the dangers when they knew they existed. Not the case here.

But I have heard Chris Sutton on this topic though and he (correct me if I misheard) is scathing of the PFA and its multi million pound former chairman for not pursuing this years ago.

Incidentally has there been any experimentation on lighter balls? The smack on the head I got from a soddem leather ball in the 1960s was never matched by anything from a ligher ball later. I appreciate that force = mass x acceleration but unless players can make the ball go faster the force would reduce with lighter balls wouldn't it. I think this has go something to do with power being equal to the rate of change of work in time, and with a lighter ball the transfer of force occurs quicker since the ball leaves the foot sooner.

(apologies for any mistakes - I got only a grade 4 for my physics GCE in 1973 )

There’s another dimension to this and that is a player’s heading technique. Strong shoulders, neck muscles and meeting the ball smack in the middle of the forehead would, you would think be less harmful than the ball being smacked at the back of a players head when he wasn’t expecting it. Or is it? A misjudged header can leave your head spinning

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

There’s another dimension to this and that is a player’s heading technique. Strong shoulders, neck muscles and meeting the ball smack in the middle of the forehead would, you would think be less harmful than the ball being smacked at the back of a players head when he wasn’t expecting it. Or is it? A misjudged header can leave your head spinning

No I think a firmly met smack on the forehead with strong neck muscles is the most dangerous to the brain. Being hit unawares is likely to be more risky to the neck and upper spine.

 

[timbha]

No I think a firmly met smack on the forehead with strong neck muscles is the most dangerous to the brain. Being hit unawares is likely to be more risky to the neck and upper spine.

Not disagreeing but I know what hurts the head more, but of course brain damage does not necessarily correlate with pain

 

[Barham's tash]

Wonder how likely it is that we’ll see players wearing head protection within the next 10 years.

Very unlikely considering by then most players are likely to be holograms controlled by spotty teenagers sat in gaming chairs. The inevitable rise of eSports.

 

[Super Steve Earle]

I wonder if the introduction of a rule stating that 'any ball kicked over head height by a keeper must bounce first or be controlled below head height of the receiving player' could work? Or some variation on that theme.

 

[Icy Gull]

I realised today that Dennis Law is 81. There is a reasonable chance that anyone of 81 could suffer with dementia, impossible to prove it was from heading a ball surely?

 

[spanish flair]

I realised today that Dennis Law is 81. There is a reasonable chance that anyone of 81 could suffer with dementia, impossible to prove it was from heading a ball surely?

True, but what is a fact more women suffer at this terrible illness than men
"At Alzheimer's Research UK we know: Dementia affects over 850,000 people in the UK and 44 million worldwide. It is estimated that 61% of people with dementia are women and 39% are men. This is likely to reflect the fact that women live longer than men and age is the biggest known risk factor for the condition."
How many of these 61% of women played for Man Utd and Scotland?

 

[Seagull58]

Men's amateur boxing worldwide did away with headguards a few years ago because there was scientific evidence that boxers got more brain swirl and potential brain damage when wearing a head guard. I'm not sure whether that is on a punch by punch comparison or because you are likely to get a higher volume of punches to the head when wearing a headguard.