Celtic FC: Right-back Alistair Johnston’s fractured face raises concerns for using heads in football
Following the face injury of Alistair Johnson last Wednesday, the question surrounding the dangers of headers in football has been brought to light again.
The Canadian right-back was carried off in a stretcher amid Celtic’s 2-1 win against Hibernian after he clashed with Nectarios Triantis.
Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers confirmed that Johnson is injured and will probably not return to the pitch for the foreseeable.
He said: “We think he has a slight fracture on the side of the head.
“We do not know how long he will be out; we are just waiting to see but it just is a season of continual issues, especially around a lot of our starting players.
“We’ll see, but hopefully it’ll be OK, and he won’t be out for too long.”
From an early age, people are encouraged to head the ball, and this continues throughout their football career.
Studies have shown that a brief session of using your head in football immediately alters brain function.
According to the study by academics at Manchester Metropolitan University’s Institute of Sport, those who headed 20 footballs did not improve their performance on a cognitive task with practice compared to those who used virtual reality.
The participants who headed real footballs also displayed a pattern of brain activity during a handgrip task that may indicate the brain was working harder to control their movements compared to participants who headed virtual footballs.
Dr Johnny Parr, a lecturer in sport psychology at the Manchester Metropolitan University Institute of Sport, said: “Our findings show that heading a football clearly induces some immediate changes to brain function, and how our brain and muscles communicate.”
The Scottish Football Association introduced guidelines surrounding headers in football training sessions with young people.
Those between the age of six and 11 should not be introduced to using their head in football training and from ages 12-15 it should remain a very low priority, while 16- to 17-year-olds are advised only one session per week of practicing headers.
This was introduced after a FIELD study by the University of Glasgow found a significant increase in the incidence of neuro degenerative diseases such as dementia in former Scottish professional footballers.
Despite the studies showing the health risks and the physical injuries that can occur, I do not believe that headers will be eradicated from the game any time soon.
