Sir Alex Ferguson makes dementia fear admission

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FT Desk

Sir Alex Ferguson fears that he will one day be diagnosed with dementia.

Over the last decade, scientists have hypothesised a potential link between heading in football and brain trauma in later life, which can cause dementia.

Footballers who played in the 60s, 70s and 80s are more at risk as the balls were a lot heavier back then and also carried water.

The English Football Association previously told the High Court that there is no proven link between heading a football and brain damage, as it responded to a legal claim by former players.

Ninety-six former footballers, including the family of Nobby Stiles, filed a claim with the High Court but the FA said that the theory linking neurological damage with heading “remains unproven”.

Stiles and former Newcastle manager Joe Kinnear were both diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) after their deaths, while in January, an inquest determined that Gordon McQueen's brain disease and subsequent death in 2023 was linked to repeatedly heading balls as a professional footballer.

The former Manchester United and Leeds United defender was diagnosed with vascular dementia in January of 2021 and passed away in June of 2023 at the age of 70.

Ferguson is 14 years older than McQueen was when he passed and has expressed concerns about dementia taking hold of him.

"I worry about that myself because I headed the ball a lot," Sir Alex told The Observer.

"All footballers did. Dementia's a challenge for anyone getting older. You worry about it a lot. I always say to myself: 'I'm 84 [laughing]. If I get to 85, I'll be all right.'"

In May of 2018, Sir Alex suffered a brain haemorrhage which initially impacted his ability to speak.

"I had lost my voice; I couldn't speak," he revealed to BBC Breakfast about the days after he underwent brain surgery.

"That was a frightening moment.

"I remember my grandsons coming to see me and I had lost my voice.

"Then they brought in a therapist and she started doing things like asking me to write down the names of birds, names of animals, names of rivers.

"That way my voice came back."

A few months later, Ferguson received a raucous reception at Old Trafford as the Man Utd faithful welcomed him and his late wife Cathy back to the Theatre of Dreams.

What is CTE?

The concept of CTE was thrust into public consciousness by concussion expert Dr Bennet Omalu, who published findings on an autopsy he did on former NFL player Mike Webster back in 2002.

Webster, who was a Hall of Fame Pittsburgh Steelers star, suffered amnesia, depression and dementia before his death at the age of 50.

Prior to Omalu's findings, CTE had only really been discussed as a threat to the lives of boxers who naturally receive numerous blows to the head.

The NFL did not truly embrace and acknowledge the link between the vigours of playing American Football and CTE until 2016 when the NFL's senior vice president for health and safety policy, Jeff Miller, testified before Congress, recognising that changes had to be made.