Risks Involved in Heading The Ball in a Soccer Game

Those of us who love football know that some of the best goals in  a competitive football match are those headed home with the heads. Infact, a good soccer player  is judged by the way he manages ball control using his head. However, recent studies using advanced imaging techniques and cognitive tests  have raised alarm bells over the safety of repeatedly heading a soccer ball at every much.

According  to the researchers involved in this study, who were mainly drawn from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, the practice of heading the ball is the main cause of brain injuries among football player which is also the factor behind cognitive impairments.

Players in the habit of head diving at the goal-mouth and those who like to soar high to head the ball sometimes get into contact with hardly kicked balls that leave dangerous impact on their brains. Players who struggle for high balls at the same time with opponents often miss the ball head each other’s skulls instead, some so badly that concussions result, leading to life threatening situations.

The Albert Einstein College  of Medicine  researchers found out that detectable  head injuries  occur more than 1000-1500 among amateur football players every year which can be translated to a few times a day world-wide among regular players. This findings should indeed be taken seriously by soccer coaches around the world who time and again glorify heading an spend a lot of time training players in heading skills.