Ban Children From Heading Ball, Campaigner Urges

Young tennis player discovered during a national youth event in Port Harcourt, Rivers State recently.

A leading campaigner on head injuries in sport has called for a ban on children heading the ball when playing football.

Chris Nowinski is a former professional wrestler and suffered from concussion because of regular blows to the head when playing college American football.

Nowinski told Tide Sports source “In football, introduce heading at a later age.”

He also said that children should not be allowed to play contact sports.

“Who thinks it’s a good idea to hit a 10-year-old in the head 200 or 300 times a season?”

He added: “If we have so many other options out there, like we get them running and being active, why play sports which include hundreds of blows to the head, knowing how bad the consequences are?

“It’s much smarter to do it when they’re teenagers and in their 20s when the brain is more developed and there are medical people on the sidelines during games.

“We can still play those games without contact but who thinks it’s a good idea to hit a 10-year-old in the head 200 or 300 times a season?”

Nowinski suffered a serious concussion in June 2003, but due to a lack of understanding about his symptoms, he continued to wrestle and work out for five weeks while symptomatic.

He developed post-concussion syndrome and was forced to retire.

Since then, he has co-founded the Sports Legacy Institute (SLI), a non-profit organisation dedicated to studying sports concussion through education, policy, and research.

Nowinski added that the concussion doctor who treated him said “no sport should have repetitive brain trauma and tolerate it before they reach high school, age 14”.

He said: “A new study came out in the US two days ago showing repetitive brain trauma is still causing brain damage.

“Based on all this research, we know we’re giving some of those kids”.