England 1966 World Cup winner Nobby Stiles died aged 78 with severe dementia linked to 140,000 headers in his career. A coroner ruled that repeated heading caused chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) alongside Alzheimer’s disease.

Expert Dr Daniel Du Plessis confirmed the brain pathology organizationally linked the impact of heading to CTE, a claim supported by the coroner and family. bella

Stiles’ son, John Stiles, has campaigned for football authorities to improve player care and is part of a group suing the FA and other bodies over negligence.

The FA iscimentos phasing out heading in youth football by 2026, following a 2019 study that found footballers were 3.5 times more likely to die of neurodegenerative disease than the general population.