Heading balls 'is risk to health'

Players often head the ball

Doctors have found more evidence to suggest that heading a football may be bad for health.

Doctors in Turkey carried out tests on 30 amateur footballers. Many were found to have potentially serious neck and spine problems.

These ranged from poor flexibility to damaged discs at the top of the spine, according to New Scientist magazine.

The doctors said players could reduce the risk of problems by timing headers better.

Dr Feza Korkusuz and colleagues at the Middle East Technical University in Ankara carried out the study.

They carried out X-rays and MRI scans on the group of amateur footballers, as well as a group of people who did not play the sport.

They found footballers had less flexible necks compared with those who did not play.

They also had more movement and greater damage to the cervical discs at the top of the spine.

Conflicting studies

The doctors said the players' spines were in a similar condition to that usually seen in older people.

This damage can cause mild pain. But it can also lead to more serious conditions, such as cervical spondylosis, in which the discs degenerate.

There have been conflicting studies on whether heading footballs is a health risk.

Fears over the safety of heading surfaced about 40 years ago.

They were reinforced in the 1980s when Norwegian scientists published several papers implicating heading in neurological disorders.

But two years ago, researchers in the United States dismissed those fears.

In 2002, a coroner ruled that former England footballer Jeff Astle died from a degenerative brain disease caused by heading heavy leather footballs.

Mr Astle collapsed and died in January that year, aged 59.

The English Football Association said it did not issue advice to players on heading footballs.

But a spokesman said it discouraged young children from heading footballs.

"In terms of young children, the version of football we encourage is mini soccer," he told BBC News Online.

"The emphasis is on playing the ball along the ground. We do not encourage them to head the ball until much later."