Steve Howey has bravely opened up about his 'concerning' health fears following years of heading a football.
The former [Newcastle United](https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/all-about/newcastle-united-fc) defender, who won four caps for England, is among a group of claimants taking legal action against the football authorities. Howey has undergone an MRI scan, which showed some cognitive decline, and the 53-year-old has put it down to repeatedly heading the ball for so much of his life.
"There were times you would head it and it would immediately go black, but that's from a shot where it's coming at pace," he told the [BBC](https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/all-about/bbc). "When it hit you, it did just go black. It would be a split second and, then, for another couple of seconds, you would have that, 'Where am I?' And then realise very quickly that this is where I am and you just got on with it.
"It's been very frustrating because I'm looking at it and thinking, 'I'm just knocking on a little bit'. I say I'm knocking on - I'm 53, I'm not that old - but I just thought, 'Is it a case of me becoming a little bit more forgetful? Not being able to get words out and kind of getting frustrated by myself?'
"I did find it was gradually becoming a little bit worse to the point where it was frustrating because I would have a sentence and know what word I want to say, but I can't get it out. There are things that I do know, but I can't remember and it becomes very frustrating.
"The concern is if it gets gradually worse. I've seen the results and done the cognitive tests and, of course, it's a concern. I can sometimes not even think about it, but then I will think about it every day because, at least a few times throughout the day, I will have a conversation and I will get frustrated with myself because I'll forget something when I know what it is."
Howey's comments come after a new study found there was no evidence that the high dementia risk among footballers is linked to health and lifestyle factors, which increases the likelihood that heading footballs has caused brain injuries. The research was led by Professor Willie Stewart, who discovered footballers were three-and-a-half times more likely to die from a neurodegenerative disease than the normal population back in 2019.
This latest research, which was published in the medical journal Jama Network Open, looked at the electronic health records of nearly 12,000 former professional footballers and close to 36,000 matches from individuals from the general population in Scotland. Researchers compared key dementia risk factors across the two groups, including a history of smoking, depression, alcohol-related disorders, diabetes, hypertension, hearing loss and obesity.