The Dutch Sports Council Called Earlier This Week for Better Protection Against Brain Injuries Duration Sports. The Advisory Body Advocates for a Ban on Heading for Children. Nu.nl Speaks with two readers who have suffered permanent brain damage as a results of their sport.
The Council Particularly Wants To Protect Young People from the Dangers of Brain Injury. For Example, The Dutch Sports Council advises Banning Headers in Football for Children Under The Age of Twelve. It is Strongly Discouraged for Young People Up to the Age Of Eighteneen. The same applies to blows to the head in martial arts and tackles in rugby.
But the advisory body also wags a general helmet bligation in Sports such as cycling, skiing and skating. The Measures Have Been Propose Because Repeated Blows or Bumps to the Head Increase the Risk of Permanent Brain Injury. Nu.nl Speaks with Two Readers Who Have Suffered Such Injuries From Heading and Tackling.
Edwin Gerretsen (34) Experienced firsthand how heading in Football Can Go Wrong. 2.5 years ago he made a goal with his head that would rather not have made made in hindsight. “I headed the ball, but also Someone’s head. As a result, I broke my eye socket and cheekbone in Several Places, and also a piece of my jaw.”
After the heading incident, he had to undergo surgery for seven hours. “Thirteen screws and three plates were placed in my face. They are still there and will probably remain there for the rest of my life.”
‘Slower in My Thinking and Doing’
Gerretsen Still Has Complaints to this day from that one moment. “That is mainly due to the brain contusion I suffered,” he says. He Regularly Has Headaches, Feels Nauseous From Time to Time and Notices Nerve Failure in His Gums. “I also sometimes can’t find my words. I am slower in my thinking and doing than before.”
As a physical education teacher at a primary school, he has difficulty with all the stimuli. That is why he now works two days a week Instead of Four. He can no longer actively participate in gymnastics with his students.
Yet His Love for Football Has Remaained. He is slowly trying to play a little more again, but at a lower level. But Heading? “I don’t do that anymore.” He also supports the advice of the Dutch Sports Council. “From experience I know that children of don’t kick the ball that high yet. Giving children heading training Doesn’t Seem necessary to me.”
Multiple Concussions from American Football
Youri Salden (49) Used to play American Football at European Professional Level. He started the sport at the age of sixteen. Last year he had a psychosis, after which Doctors suspended that he had the progressive brain disorder cte. His complaints can be traced back to his time in American Football.
The condition can only be official diagnosed after death. With the disease, abnormal proteins accumulate in the brain, causing brain cells to die. The Same Proteins also Occur in Alzheimer’s Disease.
Salns Warns Before the interview that can sometimes shut down or forget words. His Injury was not caused by one specific incident, but by several, he explains. “I had multiple concussions at the time, for which I was also hospitalized.”
Those Concussions were the result of so-called collisions : frontal collisions in which helmets hit each other hard. This is of due to tackles, which the Sports Council is now also Warning About. “The damage you suffer from this accumulates,” Says Salden.
Research Into Alzheimer’s
After his time in American Football, Salden Noticed That He was Becoming A Bit Forgetful. But the psychosis came as a surprise. After that, his thinking skills Deteriorated Significantly. “I starting a lot, of get stuck and feel anxious in spaces with many people.”
He is Currently Being Examined at the Alzheimer’s Center. It shows that he is already in an early stage of the disease.
The Former NFL Europe Player Notices That His World Has Become Considerably Smaller Due to the Brain Injury. “It is a daily decline,” he says. He describes his condition as a “Silent killer” because he keeps forgetting more things. “If I had told what I would be read with, I don’t think I would have ever done the sport. It wasn’t worn it all.”