Frank Lampard has revealed he is considering adapting Chelsea’s training over concerns with the number of former footballers developing dementia.
Nobby Stiles passed away last month, following Jack Charlton, Martin Peters and Ray Wilson as England 1966 Word Cup heroes to have died after suffering from the same illness, while Jack Charlton’s brother Sir Bobby Charlton has also recently been diagnosed with dementia.
Another England World Cup winner, Sir Geoff Hurst, has spoken about how he thinks children should be banned from heading the ball while playing football.
Lampard is in favour of tougher rules in youth football and believes a similar approach could be adopted at the professional level, as long as it was universally agreed and adhered to.
Reflecting on the issue at his news conference on Thursday, the Chelsea boss said: “The rules need to be stronger to make sure we’re not making younger children head it if they don’t need to. In the development game, that’s more than possible.
“We have to start with youth football. When children are developing, we can control the levels of training. Anything we can do to make things safer, we should.
“I think we can work up the pyramid. Already, I’m certainly considering it in terms of how we train here because of the seriousness of the issue.
“At the professional level, the small gains are huge and we need to make sure we’re working under the same guidelines and trust each other that we are.
“At the moment, there are no guidelines. It has to be something that goes across the board.”
Aston Villa manager and former defender Dean Smith, whose father, Ron, had the condition for six years before passing away in May after contracting coronavirus, revealed his concerns and says he would support changes, if further research shows a correlation.
“I think it’s a question for a wider debate until we have the full science data about heading the ball,” Smith said.
“I was a defender and my game was about heading a football. Yes it is a concern. If the data comes out and shows a correlation. We’d need to change something.
“I recently lost my father through covid but he also had dementia and he was not a footballer. Dementia and Alzheimer’s is more prevalent throughout the world now unfortunately but I think if there is a correlation between heading a football and dementia then we need to do something.
“There’s a lot of people putting in money and intelligence to find out if there is a correlation between heading and dementia. The balls were heavier back then. We are all saddened about the former players who are suffering with dementia at the moment.”
Burnley manager Sean Dyche has echoed Lampard’s view that changes are needed at youth level and said he has long argued for the use of softer balls for younger players.
“From working in the youth system at Watford, my view has always been that from a young age they should be learning with sponge balls,” Dyche said.
“It’s about technique. When you head the ball properly and appropriately you don’t get the same knock-on effect.
“From the medical side, they’ll know at what age it becomes appropriate to start using a real football.
“A lot is made of the game being different now, but if you look at the stats, you’ve still got to head the ball at some point from goal kicks or corners. Unless they’re going to take that away but I don’t think that would be a good spectacle.
“No one wants anyone having future problems and certainly not with the brain.”
