Walsall and Aston Villa legend Chris Nicholl: Heading footballs has left me brain damaged

Now 70 years old, Nicholl, who still lives in the West Midlands, struggles each day with memory loss.

A tall and commanding centre-half, he won two League Cups with Villa in the 1970s and is fondly remembered for scoring a long-range screamer in the 1977 final against Everton, as well as all four goals in a 2-2 draw with Leicester.

After he retired from playing, the Northern Ireland international then guided the Saddlers to promotion from Division Three in 1995 during a three-year stint as manager.

"I know I'm brain damaged from heading footballs," he said. "I used to head 100 balls almost every day.

"When I was at Aston Villa I would watch all my team-mates going home in their cars and I would still be there on the training pitch with Ray Graydon who used to send them long.

"It's definitely affected my memory. The balls were a lot heavier then."

Albion legend Jeff Astle died in 2002 aged just 59 from chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative brain disease caused by heading footballs.

His family have been campaigning for years to get the Football Association and FIFA to conduct research into heading, but the governing bodies have only recently started to take action.

The issue was brought to light again last year when it emerged that that three members of England's 1966 World Cup winning squad suffered from Alzheimer's disease, believed to be caused by heading.

Dawn Astle, Jeff's daughter, said: "First and foremost, I'm really saddened to hear that about Chris. It's devastating, because there's no going back, and it must be terrible for him and his family."

Because of her tireless campaigning to raise awareness of the dangers of heading, Dawn has been approached by many families of former footballers who have been affected.

"I would say a good 75 to 80 per cent of the people I speak to and contact us are families of centre-halves and centre-forwards," she said.

"Obviously not all of them are, but the vast majority are. Although any player on the pitch can head the ball, centre halves and strikers head the ball more, especially in those days."

Dawn attended a symposium at Twickenham Stadium in November looking at the impact of head injuries and concussion in both rugby and football.

She is currently waiting for the FA to complete some research into the link between playing football and dementia.

Researchers at the University of Stirling found heading the ball just 20 times could make 'small but significant changes in brain function' for the next 24 hours, when memory performance was reduced between 41 and 67 per cent.