Chelsea coach, Frank Lampard, is considering tweaking training routines following football’s growing concerns about dementia.
The 42-year-old is concerned about the effects of dementia on his players’ long-term health amid growing concerns within football.
Recent research suggests that over time, players are more vulnerable to develop dementia, as a result of heading the ball but the authorities have not asked clubs to make any changes yet.
England legend Sir Bobby Charlton was recently diagnosed with the ailment, while Nobby Stiles sadly passed away last month after losing his battle with the ailment.
Lampard has shown strong concerns about the issue and says he may take it upon himself to adopt new routines in training at Cobham.
“The rules need to be stronger to make sure we’re not making younger children head it if they don’t need to. In the development game, that’s more than possible,” said the Chelsea manager on Thursday.
“We have to start with youth football. When children are developing, we can control the levels of training. Anything we can do to make things safer, we should.
“I think we can work up the pyramid. Already, I’m certainly considering it in terms of how we train here because of the seriousness of the issue.
“At the professional level, the small gains are huge and we need to make sure we’re working under the same guidelines and trust each other that we are. At the moment, there are no guidelines. It has to be something that goes across the board.”
Lampard’s Aston Villa counterpart, Dean Smith, is about as worried about the rising influence of dementia in football having experienced it first hand.
“I think it’s a question for a wider debate until we have the full science data about heading the ball,” Smith said.
“I was a defender and my was about heading a football. Yes, it is a concern. If the data comes out and shows a correlation. We’d need to change something.
“I recently lost my father through Covid but he also had dementia and he was not a footballer. Dementia and Alzheimer’s is more prevalent throughout the world now unfortunately but I think if there is a correlation between heading a football and dementia then we need to do something.
“There’s a lot of people putting in money and intelligence to find out if there is a correlation between heading and dementia. The balls were heavier back then. We are all saddened about the former players who are suffering with dementia at the moment.”
This is serious