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            More Information Sought on Soccer Players' Head Injuries

   by Mike Richman

   Soccer is one of the most popular sports played by children in the
   United States. At the same time, research is under way to study head
   injuries such as concussions suffered by youths playing the game and
   the long-term effects of those injuries.

   Soccer players take blows to the head through headers, as well as
   collisions with other players, the ground and goal posts.

   Catherine McGill, a neuropsychologist for the Children's National
   Health System in Washington, examines many children who have suffered
   concussions playing soccer. She said concussions sustained while
   playing soccer and other youth sports are on the rise for a number of
   reasons.

   More concussions

   "One, we are getting better -- and I say 'we' meaning parents, coaches
   and medical providers alike -- are getting better at recognizing and
   responding to that injury," McGill said. "That's a huge testament to
   media paying more attention to this and leagues paying more attention
   to the safety of their players.

   "Also, kids are getting bigger, faster, stronger across the sports, and
   so more injuries may be occurring simply because of that, and more kids
   are playing sports, and they're playing more frequently.

   "I used to have kids who played soccer for one season, and they played
   a different sport the next season," she added.  "But now you've got
   multiple sports in multiple seasons, so it's just increased playing
   time, which is going to result in increased injuries, concussions
   included."

   McGill participated this week in a panel discussion in Washington on
   efforts to make American-style football safer at the youth level.

   Speaking to VOA later about soccer, she said researchers are looking
   into questions about soccer-related head injuries, including the impact
   from repeated headers and the degree of cognitive dysfunction a soccer
   player can suffer.

   "We're often asked by parents, what's the age, what age do they start
   heading, or should there be heading at all?" McGill said. "The answer
   is this is a very individual decision. The age for one child may be
   very different for the age of another child.

   "You need to look at how strong is that child, how tall is their neck,
   how agile are they, and what is their level of skill development. You
   don't want to put someone on the field who hasn't developed in an
   automatic way the technique necessary to head the ball."

   Long-term impact

   According to McGill, researchers also are studying the possible
   long-term effects from soccer-related head injuries, including chronic
   traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, a degenerative brain disease.

   Two soccer players who suffered from CTE were Hilderado Luiz Bellini,
   who played on Brazil's World Cup-winning teams in 1958 and 1962, and
   Patrick Grange, an American semiprofessional player. Bellini died last
   year at age 83, and Grange died in 2012 at age 29.

   Researchers also are trying to learn whether blows to the head from
   American-style football, boxing and other violent sports can lead to
   CTE.

   "We don't know if there are long-term effects from repeated head
   injuries," McGill said. "What we do know is that the vast majority of
   people do get better, and that there's probably a minority who seem to
   take longer to get better and may have long-lasting consequences, and
   we need more research to fully understand that.

   "There's a lot of talk in the media about CTE and the relationship
   between that and repeated head injuries," she added. "Especially with
   kids in soccer, we just haven't fully established that relationship,
   and we need more research so that we can make educated decisions."
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   [1]http://www.voanews.com/content/researchers-study-soccer-players-head
   -injuries/2867468.html

References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/researchers-study-soccer-players-head-injuries/2867468.html