Researchers say more study is needed on the long-term effects of repetitive heading in soccer
Photo Credit: Michael Probst- AP

Soccer (football) scrutinized for concussions, especially women.

A new report is expressing concern over head injuries in soccer, which is the fastest growing and most popular world sport.

Soccer is not often thought of as a sport where concussions are a concern, but statistics show 15 per-cent of all sports concussions are soccer related.

While some injuries are caused by players crashing into each other, soccer is also unique in the practice of “heading” the ball.

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In a “friendly” an American and Canadian player fight for the ball. A study shows female players suffer a higher incidence of concussion than men, and that repeated sub-concussive “heading” can have similar long term effects as a serious head injury © LM Otero-AP

The Canadian  study  by Dr. Tom Schweizer, director of the neuroscience research program at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto, was published in  “Brain Injury”, the official journal of the  International Brain Injury Association (IBIA).

Shows that  women soccer players show a higher incidence of concussion than males, and that soccer concussions have the same severity as those experienced in other sports.

Heading or using the head to direct the ball, appeared to have no real consequences and so its affects were little studied.

However, multiple “sub-concussive” head impacts are now being looked at as having the same long-term cognitive effects as patients suffering serious head injury.

The Canadian report involved a careful review and analysis of currently available international research into cognitive effects of concussions and heading in soccer. They studied several databases from 1806 to 2013, and dozens of articles relating to the impact of heading the ball

It is not known why women seem to suffer more head injury than men in soccer, but a theory may be that women’s neck muscles are not as strong.

“The practice of heading, which might occur thousands of times over a player’s career, carries unknown risks but may uniquely contribute to cognitive decline or impairment in short or long term,”
Dr. Schweizer said

Studies that considered the long-term effects of heading found “greater memory, planning and perceptual deficits in forwards and defenders, players who execute more headers.”

Another study found professional players who did the most heading during their careers, did poorest in tests of verbal and visual memory as well as attention.

Brain Injury- Canadian report abstract

(with files from CBC)

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