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England World Cup winner Nobby Stiles died with a brain condition caused by repeatedly heading a football, a coroner has ruled.
Stiles, a tenacious, tough-tackling midfielder described by Geoff Hurst as the “heart and soul” of the 1966 World Cup-winning team, died in 2020 but his death was not reported by authorities to the coroner’s office.
His family have campaigned for a full investigation into his death. Stiles’ son John has previously said that football “killed” his father.
On Wednesday in Stockport, coroner Alison Mutch said the death of 78-year-old Stiles was contributed to by a brain condition caused by repeatedly heading a football.
The inquest heard that Stiles, who played for Manchester United, headed a football about 140,000 times during his career.
At the end of his life Stiles had Alzheimer’s disease and had to sell his World Cup winner’s medals to fund his care.
Analysis of Stiles’ brain showed that his severe dementia was as a result of Alzheimer’s disease but also the condition, chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), which has been associated with head trauma from heading a ball.
Dr Daniel Du Plessis, a neuropathology expert, told the court: “I’m quite convinced his heading the football that many times has caused his CTE.”
Mutch, senior coroner for South Manchester, asked Du Plessis: “You are saying repeated heading of the ball is the cause of his CTE?”
“Yes,” he replied.
Norbert Stiles, born in Collyhurst, Manchester, was short and shortsighted but was capped 28 times by England and played for United nearly 400 times.
He is fondly remembered for his victory jig at the 1966 cup final defeat of West Germany, clutching the Jules Rimet trophy in one hand and his false teeth in the other.
His family have been campaigning for football authorities to do more to help ex-players cope with injuries they claim were caused during their playing days.
John Stiles, head of the Football Families for Justice (FFJ) group, told the inquest that his father was “very humble” about his achievements.
“It never really changed him,” he said. “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.”
He said his father “never talked, he never bragged” about being a World Cup winner.
“He was proud of it but we were always much more proud of the father he was than the footballer,” he added.
Stiles said footballs in his father’s days weighed about 16 ounces but would get heavier when wet.
Dozens of former footballers and their families, including Stiles’, are suing the Football Association, the Football Association of Wales and the English Football League over claims they were “negligent and in breach of their duty of care” to the former players.
In January an inquest into the death of Gordon McQueen, 70, an ex-Scotland, Manchester United and Leeds United defender, found that heading the ball was “likely” to have contributed to a brain injury which was a factor in his death. McQueen was also diagnosed with CTE.
