Calls grow for footballers to receive yearly screening to deal with dementia crisis

[ASFN Admin]

Football has been accused of a “disgraceful” delay in responding to its dementia crisis and is facing parliamentary pressure to introduce regular new neurological screening of professional players. The All-Party Parliamentary Group for Acquired Brain Injury successfully lobbied this year for checks to be made inside prisons after it was found that inmates had often previously suffered brain injuries and its chair, Chris Bryant, has now suggested a similar system of mandatory checks for footballers. This would include questions about a player’s past history with brain injuries but potentially also cognitive tests that could be conducted annually throughout a player’s career in an attempt to identify early signs of neurological change. “It has already been transformative in some prisons,” said Bryant, who cited research which found that as many as 60 per cent of inmates in some prisons had experienced a brain injury. Dr Don Williams, whose pioneering work in tracking former professionals in Wales between 1980 and 2003 helped to reveal football dementia problem, has previously also advocated a comparable intervention. “Athletes who are at risk of repetitive subconcussive head injuries should be screened regularly using cognitive psychological tests,” he said. “If these show deterioration advice must be sought about early retirement. There is no doubt that dementia is a significant disease in soccer players and it’s time for action.” Dr Williams has also described calls for additional research without immediate action as “ammunition for the Football Association and the Professional Footballers' Association to sit comfortably on the fence”. Landmark research last year by the University of Glasgow, which was funded by the FA and the PFA, found that former professional players were 3.5 times more likely to die of neurodegenerative disease than the rest of the population. A submission was made earlier this year by Dawn Astle and Judith Gates for dementia in football to be recognised as an industrial disease and their case is now also being supported by the PFA.

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