English FA welcomes new evidence regarding repetitive head impacts

Researchers found that contact-sport athletes were at least 68 times more likely to develop CTE than those who did not play any contact sport

SUFFERING: Former England captain Dave Watson (l) against Diego Maradona during an international friendly against Argentina 1981. Watson's family believe he is suffering from CTE. Pic: Raban/Allsport/Getty Images/Hulton Archive

The English Football Association has welcomed new research that has found conclusive evidence that repetitive head impacts can cause degenerative brain disease and offered its support in attempts to diagnose chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) in people still alive.

An international team of experts issued a global call on Tuesday for further CTE prevention and mitigation efforts to be brought in, especially for children, following the publication of Applying the Bradford Hill Criteria for Causation to Repetitive Head Impacts and Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy in the Frontiers in Neurology journal last week.