Paul GARDNER

Football’s concussion problem: time to face the unthinkable

There is no convincing reason that explains football’s persistently casual attitude to its concussion problem and any complacency there might have been should have come to a screeching halt in 2002 – the year former West Bromwich Albion centre-forward Jeff Astle died.

Astle had been a powerful header of the ball and an inquest found he had suffered brain damage, with the coroner, Dr Andrew Haigh, defining it