A coroner has heard that England World Cup winner Norbert ‘Nobby’ Stiles died from a brain condition linked to his time in soccer.
The inquest at Stockport Coroner’s Court came after years of campaigning by Stiles’ family for greater recognition of the long-term effects of repeated head impacts in football. Stiles, the former Manchester United midfielder and member of England’s 1966 World Cup-winning side, was 78 when he died in 2020. He had been living with severe dementia and is estimated to have headed a soccer ball around 140,000 times over the course of his career.
Specialists later examined the late footballer’s brain tissue following his death. CTE is a degenerative brain disease that is only definitively diagnosed after death, and medical bodies say it is associated with repeated head trauma over time.
The findings showed that his dementia was caused by Alzheimer’s disease, while also identifying chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a rare condition that has been linked to repeated head trauma, including heading the ball.
“causes the death of nerve cells in the brain, known as degeneration”
According to Mayo Clinic, CTE is a progressive disease that gets worse over time.
CTE can only be definitively identified after death through an examination of the brain, which means a diagnosis cannot be confirmed in life even when symptoms strongly suggest it.
Neuropathology expert Dr Daniel Du Plessis gave evidence about his conclusions.
“I’m quite convinced his heading the football that many times has caused his CTE.”
Alison Mutch, senior coroner for South Manchester, asked Dr Du Plessis:
“You are saying repeated heading of the ball is the cause of his CTE?”
“Yes,”
he replied.
Although some people with dementia can continue to enjoy parts of daily life, Stiles’ condition became especially severe in his final years. In the period before his death, he was bed-bound and died at a care home in Manchester on October 30, 2020.
Four years later, his family continued pressing soccer’s governing bodies to provide more support for retired players they believe suffered lasting damage during their careers. They raised the possibility that CTE had played a role in his death, leading Dr Du Plessis to study samples of his brain tissue.
John Stiles had previously said the sport had “killed” his father. Relatives first became aware something was wrong when the former player, still in his late 50s, started forgetting things and repeating himself.
John Stiles described his father to the hearing in deeply personal terms.
“My dad was very humble, he just happened to have achieved quite a lot.
“It never really changed him. If you went into his house you would never know he was a footballer.
“He was very much a family man, football was left at the door. The family was always the first priority.”
Stiles’ case has become part of a wider push by former players and their families for football authorities to do more on concussion, repeated headers and support for dementia sufferers. Medical research bodies say CTE is linked to repeated blows to the head, and recent legal claims in the sport have argued there is no proven safe level of heading exposure.
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