Whether at practice or during a match, football players could unknowingly be putting their brain health at risk.

Studies suggest that retired players have a higher risk of developing dementia, particularly Alzheimer's disease, compared to the general population.

It is currently thought that this increased risk is partly driven by performing one particular skill: heading the ball.

Research testing the effects of repeated heading impacts during training or games has found immediate short-term changes in markers of brain health.

These include reduced cognitive function, lower capacity to control brain blood flow, and increases in blood biomarkers indicating neural damage.

Furthermore, players with a history of heading the ball are found to have reduced brain blood vessel function compared to people with no such history.

This reduced vascular function is widely considered an early indicator of neurodegenerative disease.

Proving that this skill directly causes dementia remains difficult, partly because detecting subtle changes in brain function is inherently challenging.

Football heading rarely causes visible symptoms of traumatic brain injury, meaning small alterations may go undetected until significant harm has already occurred.

Over time, however, these repetitive, "sub-concussive" ball-to-head impacts may cause cumulative damage to the brain.