In January 2002, West Brom legend Jeff Astle passed away at the age of 59. A prolific header of the ball during his career in the '70s when the balls were heavier, a coroner ruled that the former England international's death was a result of a degenerative brain disease caused by minor traumas linked to heading footballs.
Tonight on Off The Ball, his daughter Dawn joined us on the line to talk about what happened to her famous father and what can be learned.
"Back in 1998, when he was only 55, we noticed that he was forgetting things. He couldn't remember my son's name after he was born and he asked a few times if his Mum was still alive. My Grandma had died 25 odd years before and we didn't really understand what was happening to him," she told Joe tonight.
His wife managed to convince him to eventually go to the doctor and it became clear that his memory was impaired, Dawn explained, with a belief that he had early on-set Alzheimers.
The disease progressed to a point where it affected Astle's day-to-day life and as Dawn said "they lost a part of him every day" until he died on January 19th 2002.
West Bromwich Albion fans with a 'Justice for Jeff' banner for Jeff Astle (Nick Potts / PA Wire/Press Association Images)
"He was so poorly. He could hardly walk. He was only 59 but he looked 159 and he basically choked to death in front of us and we realise now that his brain was so damaged."
After his death, the coroner compared Astle's brain to that of a boxer and linked the repeated trauma from headers as the eventual cause of death.
"His verdict was industrial disease. In other words, Dad's job had killed him. This is a landmark ruling and we were absolutely distraught," said Dawn.
In March of last year, they found out that research into the effects of heading the ball fell by the wayside, leaving Dawn and her family "gobsmacked".
But Astle's brain had been donated for research and it was later discovered that he had in fact had Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative brain disease caused by repeated trauma and Dawn explained how a doctor told her it was "one of the worst cases he'd ever seen" and that he had been initially misdiagnosed.
Dawn also spoke about families and footballers who had been in touch with her and the Justice for Jeff campaign about similar cases to Astle's and how her father's case is far from an isolated one, even into more modern times when footballs are different.
Listen to the full interview via the podcast.
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