Professional footballers should take psychometric tests
Sonia Oxley
Professional footballers should take psychometric tests as part of their medical assessment before joining a club so signs of brain damage caused by heading a ball can be detected, a British neurosurgeon said on Tuesday.
Farhad Afshar, senior neurosurgical consultant at St Bartholomews and Royal London hospitals, said problem-solving and verbal skills tests conducted every five years may lead to doctors spotting brain diseases such as that which contributed to the death of former England striker Jeff Astle.
A coroner ruled on Monday that Astle died in January from a degenerative brain disease caused by the constant heading of heavy leather footballs.
"Why doesn't every professional player as part of their initial medical assessment have a brain test?" Afshar said.
The English Football Association began research last season into the effects on the brain of ball-heading.
It is studying 30 players aged 18 or 19 from 10 professional clubs's youth academies over the next 10 years and said it would give them memory tests.
Headway, a brain injury association, said it had not been impressed with the study because it felt the number of players being monitored was statistically insignificant and some of them may not make the grade and will be released by their clubs.
"Not everyone can be (Liverpool and England striker) Michael Owen," said a Headway spokesman.
An FA spokesman said: "There is always that possibility -- all 30 could have their careers cut short."
But he added that coaches believed the selected players were among those most likely to play top flight football.
"Otherwise we would have taken a larger sample pool," he said.
NO HEADING
Former England player Phil Neal told Sky Sports on Tuesday there could be serious repercussions throughout the coaching world if it was found that heading the ball was damaging to a player's long-term health.
"Maybe we will have to play the game of football without heading the ball," he said.
Afshar said brain damage might be reduced by protective headgear in the same way that cyclists wear helmets.
He also said changes in design meant the impact of a ball on a player's head was likely to be less than in Astle's day.
Balls used to be made of leather that easily absorbed water and became heavier in wet conditions during a game. They are now made of artificial materials and are lighter.
"The dangers must be less than they used to be with the old leather footballs," Afshar said.
Paul Bell, spokesman for ball manufacturers Mitre, said there was no conclusive evidence indicating a direct link between brain injury and heading a football.
"Research has suggested that the more serious injuries are caused mainly through falling down, kicking one another, colliding with someone or running into a goal post," he said.
The chief executive of the Professional Footballers' Association (PFA), Gordon Taylor, told Sky Sports that in future balls may carry similar health warnings to those on cigarette packets, such as "too much heading can be dangerous".
