10-01-2014, 12:02 PM
Soccer is a bit tricky. Having to regularly head balls that are whizzing at you at 70 mph cannot be good for your brain health. But, at the same time, there seems to be fewer anecdotal stories like we hear from the NFL. Part of that is Europe being beyond on the issue of traumatic brain injury in sports; I think we've only just gotten to the point where there's outcry over obviously concussed players going into the game. (GK Hugo Lloris went back into the game a couple years ago; earlier this season CB Dejan Lovren re-entered the game despite obvious concussion symptoms.)
To my knowledge, we've only seen two players posthumously diagnosed of CTE (http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/earl...-protocol/), but perhaps we'll see more.
My guess is that there's less, but we really have only just started thinking about the issue. (The whole issue of brain health in general is neglected; I was shocked doing some reporting a few years ago at how primitive it seemed.)
To my knowledge, we've only seen two players posthumously diagnosed of CTE (http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/earl...-protocol/), but perhaps we'll see more.
My guess is that there's less, but we really have only just started thinking about the issue. (The whole issue of brain health in general is neglected; I was shocked doing some reporting a few years ago at how primitive it seemed.)