Children should be barred from heading footballs: brain specialist

In the children's game you hardly ever see anyone heading the ball anyway.

Agreed, children playing football rarely head the ball.

said the 49-year-old Nigeria-born naturalised American.

Why is this in the article? What is it's relevance to the story?

Kids under the age 12 to 14 should play a less contact form of soccer

What does this mean?

We should teach kids how to tackle, use their bodies to shield the ball and use the arms for advantage. I played at center-half and my manager used to show me videos of masters of the dark arts like Claudio Gentile, who memorably said that football is not a game for ballerinas after he cynically marked Maradona out of a game.

As stated above, kids don’t head the ball much in a match anyway. Most of the heading I did as a kid was in training.

How about shaking your head vigorously then? Could this cause brain damage? (serious question)

"The human brain floats like a balloon inside your skull so when you head the ball you suffer brain damage," said Omalu. "You damage your brain when you head the ball.

Agree if we're talking about hard/extremely powerful shots, not so much when it comes to 'standard' heading i.e. after corners, gk long kicks etc. Sometimes feel that we are over sanitizing sports (and other activities) tbh.

Rugby head guards can be a hint to FIFA find ways to use protector for infantile heads.

Rugby head guards can be a hint to FIFA find ways to use protector for infantile heads.

If you mean scrum caps, they don't really offer protection against brain injury. They are designed to protect against cuts, bruises and bleeding to the head and ears. I think the general concern in rugby regarding brain damage is from the impact of a heavy tackle, particularly between children of very different weights.

Part of the cumulative damage must be from cracking heads together.