More “Sport and Health” …

Referencing once again the Rust’s ongoing review of post-career health for those who play – or participate in – elite sport, overnight I came across a number of media stories reporting that Liverpool football legend Terry McDermott has dementia. He joins an ever-lengthening list of former soccer notables battling a similar condition.

See here for a link to a piece by Stephen Davies that appears today upon the website of the – DAILY MAIL

As has also happened with rugby union and boxing, every time a former professional footballer of some renown is identified as suffering from chronic illness and/or dementia it drives home to we ordinary folk just how strong the relationship is between sporting “occupational hazards” and specific later-life health issues.

At a slight tangent, a point occurred to me today.

A word of caution may be worthy of mentioning.

Just because (for example) Terry McDermott had a long career in elite football and Terry McDermott also now has dementia, it is worth pointing out that it does not necessarily automatically follow that in his case the former – and specifically the practice of “heading the ball – has caused the latter.

It is at least worth mentioning that it is quite possible that there is no causal link between the one and the other.

Just as – by the same token – there exists a theoretical/technical possibility that there is.