Footballers are heading for serious brain trouble. Not the kind arising from excessive drinking and partying after winning the CAF Champions League, but long-term brain injury caused by heading the ball, something most players do frequently. A new study into heading a football, done by the University of Stirling in Scotland, has identified major changes in brain function from head impacts with footballs, which can travel at quite a speed. What’s to be done about preventing football-heading brain damage is another question altogether, since to ban headers would destroy the game. Equipping players with plastic helmets might help. Maybe players should only be allowed, say, three headers in a game, with a free-kick being awarded to the rival team when a player exceeds the quota. Playing with a smaller, lighter ball might also reduce the brain-jarring impact of a header, but by the time football world governing body Fifa gets around to considering this Bafana Bafana may have won the Worl...
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