“Loughborough University researchers have published what they consider to be a seminal paper on the neurological impacts of heading in football. The key results of the study, funded by the FA and conducted independently, were the identification of ‘distinctive pressure waves” in the frontal brain region when the head meets the ball. The researchers say this was ‘previously unreported’ and provides some explanation for the mechanics — and potential neurological consequences — of performing headers. ‘We’ve measured for the first time a feature of the collision, which has always been there, but we’ve not been using the right sensors to record it,’ explains Professor Andy Harland to The Athletic from an office at the university campus near Leicester in the English Midlands. …”
NY Times/The Athletic (Video)

Players contest a header in a Charlton Athletic vs Aston Villa game in 1954