Orbitofrontal Gray-White Interface Injury, Soccer Heading and Verbal Learning

Football codes of all kinds have a massive future cost associated with CTE. As more athletes donate their brain to science the extent of life changing injury detection rises.

Much though I love the rise of women's football codes across the genre (aussie rules, rugby, soccer) the terrible reality is that we're conducting an experiment on young women's future mental well-being.

We've already seen by RSI the rise of ligament and joint damage. Early career exits with wrecked joints, future arthritis and replacement. We expect too much of professional sportsmen and women. 50 years ago I met a guy at uni with wrecked legs from aggressive tackles in amateur sport. I can't believe we normalise people performing beyond stress points to the detriment of their career in sport.

CTE manifests as increased depression, suicide, alcoholism and family violence in men. An increasing association with explosive shockwaves from artillery and other ordinance is held to be the root cause for veterans.

Football codes without helmets have less opportunistic places to put accelerometers into game play. Maybe some remote sensing model can do something.

Mandatory off field time for concussion is widely used now, but is it time to ban headers?