Head Injuries and Brain Traumas in Soccer
While researching articles about injuries in different kinds of sports and their consequences, I have come up to an article by Christian Jarrett that describes a potential problem that a game of soccer could cause. The author stresses the importance of the problem as soccer is an extremely popular sport and is played worldwide. I wen further on to discover more information on the matter and find possible solutions to the problem by analyzing two more articles, by Brad Balukjian and Laird Harrison. My goal in this paper is to bring the significant importance of potential head injuries and brain trauma to the discussion and find possible solutions to the problem by analyzing the three articles mentioned.
In the article “Does soccer have a brain-trauma problem?” by Christian Jarrett, a problem of soccer injuries is discussed, in particular whether soccer could cause long-term brain damage or not. Soccer is the world’s most played sport and could affect people’s health worlwide(Jarrett). Despite the fact that most of the action involves player's feet and kicking of the ball, there are situations when players just have to use their head as well. It could be a chance to “strike a fast-moving one-pound ball” or simply a head-to-head collision with another player (Jarrett). Such constant contacts potentially increase the chances of getting a brain injury and even developing chronic traumatic encephalopathy (Jarrett).
The research by Inga Koerte and her colleagues discovered that soccer players that were monitored showed signs of “age-related cortical thinning”, particularly in “brain regions in the parietal and occipital cortices, which are associated with visual and spatial mental functions” (Jarrett). Koerte scanned the brains of 15 former professional soccer players in order to see the difference with the control group – athletes that were not involved in contact sports. The results have showed a stronger link between older age and reduced gray matter. Furthermore, the more soccer players headed the ball, the more cortical thinning they had. The also scored worse on a number of mental tests, in terms of both, the results and speed. The study is further supported by findings of “subtle changes to the connective tissue” and “altered brain chemistry” in former professional soccer players (Jarrett). Overall, heading a ball in soccer could cause multiple potential problems related to the brain of a player.
Soccer headgear
It is not common for soccer players to wear soccer headgear, however it could possibly solve the problem of potential head trauma and/or brain damage. The researchers have examined the advantages of soccer headgear by banging crash dummies against each other and measuring the impact (Harrison). The results have showed that those dummies with headgears would absorb significantly less damage, therefore causing less damage to the head of a dummy. This creates an opportunity for soccer players to avoid possible injuries from doing their favorite sport and keep the consequences to a minimum. Moreover, a survey in 2007 showed that Canadian teenage soccer players who used headgear were …
