Football legend Sir Bobby Charlton diagnosed with dementia.

Sir Bobby Charlton, part of England’s 1966 World cup winning team has been diagnosed with dementia.

The England and Manchester United icon who the Ballon d’Or in 1966 played over 600 games for Manchester United. He won three league titles, a European Cup and an FA Cup during his time at Old Trafford. Sir Bobby was a survivor of the 1958 Munich air crash, in which 23 people died. He also won the BBC Sports Personality lifetime achievement award in 2008.

Manchester United released a statement ‘Everyone at Manchester United is saddened that this terrible disease has afflicted Sir Bobby Charlton and we continue to offer our love and support to Sir Bobby and his family.’

Charlton’s Brother Jack passed away in July of this year after suffering with lymphoma and dementia. Also, fellow World Cup Winner Nobby Styles who passed away earlier this week, was also diagnosed with dementia.

Sir Bobby’s wife Lady Norma Charlton made the news public in order to help others with dementia, reported by the Telegraph.

Dementia is a term for a range of progressive conditions that affect the brain, with the most common type of dementia being Alzheimer’s disease.

A study by Glasgow University in 2019 found that former professional footballers are three and a half times more likely to die of dementia than people of the same age in the general population.

Former pro footballers had an approx 3.5 times higher rate of death due to neurodegenerative disease, but were less likely to die of diseases such as heart disease and some cancers, says new @UofGMVLS study led by @WillSTEWNeuro in @NEJM
👉 https://t.co/3RlEtHoZx6 pic.twitter.com/imTDKhNyNo

— University of Glasgow (@UofGlasgow) October 21, 2019

Consultant Neuropathologist Dr Willie Stewart who’s a professor at the university of Glasgow said, “This is the largest study to date looking in this detail at the incidence of neurodegenerative disease in any sport, not just professional footballers.”

In February the FA released an updated heading guidance for youth training sessions, which restricts the amount that young players can head the ball. The new guidelines include:

• Heading guidance in training for all age groups between under-six and under-18
• No heading in training in the foundation phase (primary school children)
• Graduated approach to heading training for children in the development phase between under-12 to under-16
• Required ball sizes for training and matches for each age group
• No changes to heading in matches, taking into consideration the limited number of headers in youth games