CTE found in former soccer players, study shows

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(CNN)Four former soccer players who had advanced forms of dementia were also found to have chronic traumatic encephalopathy, according to a study (PDF) published Tuesday.

Chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, is a progressive neurodegenerative disease thought to be caused by repeated injuries to the head, and the new findings suggest it could have been an underlying cause of their dementia.

Soccer and dementia

Some playershave questioned whether soccer is having a concussion crisis, similar to American football. The issue of dementia in soccer began drawing attention after the death of British player Jeff Astle in 2002 at the age of 59.

Astle had been well-known for his ability to head a goal, and the coroner attributed his passing to “death by industrial disease.” In 2014, he was posthumously diagnosed with CTE.

She and her team believe more research now needs to be conducted to identify the risks posed to professional footballers on the pitch, as the small sample size in this study means the findings cannot be extrapolated on a wider scale.

“I emphasize this is a very small selection of players,” said Huw Morris, a professor of clinical neuroscience at the UCL Institute of Neurology who also worked on the study. “And these are people with a very high amount of playing and exposure.”

What to do?

The team does not advise that members of the public stop playing soccer. Rather, they say, those responsible for the well-being of professionals, such as England’s Football Association, may need to take such factors into account.

“The risk is extremely low of playing recreational football,” Morris said. “This is something the FA are looking at actively.”

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The American Youth Soccer Organization has eliminated heading all together for players under the age of 10 and limited heading during practice for those between 11 and 13.

Boxing and American football have long been associated with CTE and resulting risks from neurodegenerative conditions, and Morris highlighted how the professions have adapted.

“In the American football league, receivers have the highest rate of CTE acceleration,” Morris said, adding that this was probably due to their increased rate of collisions and impact. “(Both) rugby and (American football) have introduced changes to tackles.”

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