One of the FA and Premier League’s own medical advisers last night followed the PFA in saying it would be sensible to reduce heading in training.
The intervention of Professor Tony Belli — a world-leading expert on traumatic brain injury who runs the Birmingham Sport Concussion Clinic — is significant as he acts as an independent adviser on concussion to the football organisations who must now decide whether to implement the PFA’s recommendation.
Belli said: ‘I am not a football coach, but from a medical point of view you need to ask yourself whether long heading sessions are absolutely necessary.