New research shows concerning ‘distinctive pressure waves’ from heading footballs
Loughborough University researchers have published what they consider to be a seminal paper on the neurological impacts of heading in football. The key results of the study, funded by the FA and conducted independently, were the identification of “distinctive pressure waves” in the frontal brain region when the head meets the ball. The researchers say this was “previously unreported” and provides some explanation for the mechanics — and potential neurological consequences — of performing headers.
“We’ve measured for the first time a feature of the collision, which has always been there, but we’ve not been using the right sensors to record it,” explains Professor Andy Harland to The Athletic from an office at the university campus near Leicester in the English Midlands. “Something very consistent, very repeatable, is happening every time a ball collides with something. That generates this pressure wave, which, if you’ve made a header, progresses into the head,” he says.
Dr Ieuan Phillips, lead researcher on the paper and a PhD graduate at Loughborough, says that they have “described the nature of the energy going into the brain”. He adds that the pressure wave is a “really distinctive form of energy transfer” which has been “well-established” as a cause of brain injuries in other contexts, such as low-level military blasts. Harland, who has a background in medical ultrasound, knows that pressure waves are used to remove kidney stones.
Because none of the Loughborough researchers have applied medical backgrounds — “We’re not neuroscientists,” Harland says — they stop short of drawing definitive, causal links between these pressure waves and neurodegenerative diseases. That is not because they think there is no link, but because it needs experts in neuroscience to prove one exists. A study published in 2023, led by the University of Nottingham and commissioned by the FA and the Professional Footballers’ Association, showed that medically diagnosed dementia and other neurodegenerative diseases were three times more prevalent among retired professional footballers than in the general population.
“We can’t say exactly what the damage is or how it’s working, but we know from the laws of physics it’s something we should be aware of; it’s an energy which is being put into the head,” Harland adds. Another standout point from the paper, published in The Journal of Sports Engineering and Technology , was that leather-style footballs from the 20th century produced “peak pressures” impact forces four times higher when wet — a result they called “substantial”. Balls with more modern designs — specifically the kind that are synthetic machine-stitched and have been used at elite levels of the game since 2016 — returned the least severe impact forces and were more water-resistant.
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