A study has indicated that footballers who regularly head the ball could suffer from brain damage.
Researchers in the US carried out a study on 37 amateur footballers, and discovered that frequent headers caused memory loss and brain abnormalities.
"What we've shown here is compelling initial evidence that there are brain changes that look like traumatic brain injury which are associated with heading a soccer ball with high frequency," the Daily Star quotes study leader Dr Michael Lipton as saying.
"In the meantime, controlling the amount of heading that people do may provide an approach for preventing brain injury as a consequence of heading."
The players in question claimed that they had been playing football for an average of 22 years.
