Sport is important for the individual in that it helps develop life skills. Sport is also important for society in that it is a channel for youthful competitiveness and emotions.
It reduces anti-social behaviour and has been used to help recovery from addiction.
Female football has become a billion pound industry.
Due to anatomy, physiology and hormonal differences female players are more at risk of developing brain injuries. They take longer to recover from a concussion.
Concussion can also lead to mental health issues.
Females have 59 per cent less muscle mass in their neck compared to a male of the same height, hence more of a whiplash effect.
Sue Lopez , the United Kingdom’s first semi-professional female player, has developed dementia which she has linked to heading the ball. How many of the Lionesses will be suffering from dementia in their seventies?
Sir Alex Ferguson has added his name to a campaign for the Scottish Government to reclassify football related brain injury as an industrial disease.
In an attempt to reduce the risk of concussion some players at the Women’s World Cup wore a concussion collar.
Outfield players are three and a half times more likely than the general public to develop a neurodegenerative condition, defenders five times more likely but goalkeepers have no increased risk.
Heading should be banned in football.
It is also long past the time that all football boot manufacturers should invest in research and development to produce football boots for female players.
The female foot is anatomically different from the male foot and the wider pelvis has to be factored in.
The number of anterior cruciate ligament injuries in female players has to be reduced and football boots appear to be a contributing factor.
Dr Wilson Banks
Retired GP
Isle of Skye