Heading in Football
December 18, 2022
Like a lot of folks in the field of sport medicine I am, at heart, a lover of sport. From participation to fandom, my relationship with sport runs deep and has been lifelong.
And so, if you are similarly inclined, then you are likely still recovering from what already is being described as the greatest final in World Cup history.
I spent the better part of the day enjoying the titanic struggle between La Albiceleste and Les Bleus followed by several more hours watching highlights and reading analyses. Truly, Argentina v. France was one of the best live sporting events I have ever witnessed.
And for the many, including myself, who have long admired the greatness of Lionel Messi, it was a joy watching him, at long last, kiss the FIFA World Cup trophy.
The entire month of football was exciting — so many good matches, and relatively little in the way of overt controversy in the area of sports medicine (I’m thinking about the 2018 and other past World Cups where there were clear controversies surrounding players’ returning promptly to play after probable concussions).
But there is always, arguably, something puzzling about the ‘beautiful game,’ possibly the most popular sport on the planet: the intentional use of the head as a sporting instrument.
‘Heading’ in soccer has, with our modern understanding of concussion and the sequelae of repetitive head impacts, become an issue surrounded by controversy. How much heading is safe? At what age should an individual begin to learn how to head a football (or soccer ball, for my American colleagues)? Read more of this post