RIP Nobby Stiles

Advanced dementia again.
Wonder what caused that???
Also terrible prostate cancer.
78 is not a great age these days. Used to be.
 
Dancing along the pitch holding the trophy with his false teeth out. For me that was the most iconic moment on a wonderful day!
 
World Cup winner, European Cup winner, First Division winner, only Bobby Charlton has these honours. Ironically the FA cup was the only honour missing, he was not picked for the 1963 final against us. Disgraceful that other players in the World Cup winning team got civil honours including knighthoods, but Nobby had to wait 30 years to get an MBE. RIP.
 
Was told to deal with Eusebio in the WC SF by Alf. He did and it was a very important part of us reaching the final
 
“Well, I think Kenneth Wolstenholme summed up the moment really well, when he said “Just look at Nobby Stiles””
 
Sohofox said:
Advanced dementia again.
Wonder what caused that???
Also terrible prostate cancer.
78 is not a great age these days. Used to be.
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Yes, I read about the cause of death, Soho. I don't know the stats about footballers from that era and the incidence of dementia, but one can only hope the lighter, non-absorbant balls used nowadays don't lead to any above-average problem for today's players. But plenty of people suffer from the same appalling illness without playing the game, so I can't say I agree with those like Nobby's son who say they are convinced of the cause. Very sad, though.
 
Filbo65 said:
Yes, I read about the cause of death, Soho. I don't know the stats about footballers from that era and the incidence of dementia, but one can only hope the lighter, non-absorbant balls used nowadays don't lead to any above-average problem for today's players. But plenty of people suffer from the same appalling illness without playing the game, so I can't say I agree with those like Nobby's son who say they are convinced of the cause. Very sad, though.
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Jeff Astle. Danny Blanchflower. And a lot of the England 1966 squad have dementia or had dementia when they died.
Heading that ball day after day in matches and training was worse than being a pro boxer and taking hundreds of punches to the head.
 
Like I say, I don't know the stats re footballers. But amongst the general population, about two in 100 people aged between 65 to 69 have dementia (which sounds low to me), and this figure rises to one in five for those aged between 85 to 89.
 
Glasgow Uni study in 2016 said ex pro footballers are 3.5 times more likely to suffer from advanced dementia than the national average for that generation.
 
Interesting, thanks. Can't be as bad with today's beach-balls, hopefully. But I vividly Lineker saying he actively avoided heading the ball in all but the most exceptional circumstances. Presumably when he could score... ;)
 
I suspect headguards will be introduced for all footballers in years to come.
We will have to get used to it - like we did for batsmen in cricket and amateur boxers and rugby players.
 
To quote Jack Charlton “ playing behind Nobby was easy, the ball might come through or the man might come through but there was no f’kin way they were coming together“
 
Oh well.
Just sit back, do faack all and watch thousands die early from dementia due to brain compression damage.
Just so long as we enjoy ourselves its an acceptable early death toll.
 
Don't quote me on this and I'm no expert at all, but I did read that headguards can lead to greater brain trauma because they shield the wearer from the initial blows but can't prevent the brain moving and becoming damaged inside the skull. Because the wearer will not be as quickly subdued by external blows there is more potential for internal damage continuing longer into a bout.
I'm hoping someone on here has medical expertise and can confim or correct this.
 
Sounds interesting - like Mickeythehoss said about amateur male boxers.
But something is wrong when people get dementia and die early just because they played a sport when they were younger.
 
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Roughage has it about right.
The idea of head-guards in football is difficult to take seriously – for similar reasons.
The obvious way forward – now that the ball's are much improved from the past era we're talking about – is to rule out heading the ball.
I think it's already gaining traction at younger age levels.
 
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