PHOTOS OF OLD GAMES CAN IGNITE THE BRAIN

Martindale backing new plans after seeing effect on patients

DAVID Martindale has already witnessed up close football’s amazing ability to help those living with dementia or Alzheimer’s.

The Livingston manager watched in amazement as old photographs of the beautiful game transformed into keys to unlock the door to an Aladdin’s Cave of hidden memories for those participating in a local football nostalgia project within the Tony Macaroni Arena.

Now Martindale is getting behind a move aimed at preventing dementia in current and future Scottish footballers.

New guidelines were issued this week by the Scottish FA, trying to address the stark fact that former professional players are three-and-a-half times more likely to die of dementia than the same age range in the general public.

The measures limit training exercises involving repeated heading to once a week and call for no heading in the 24 hours before and after matches.

Martindale does not necessarily believe the new guidelines will alter his training schedules too much. But he welcomes any measures that could help reduce cases of an awful illness that has caused such anguish to so many former players and their families, including Celtic’s Lisbon Lion captain Billy McNeill and ex-Manchester United and Dundee United defender Frank Kopel.

‘Fortunately, it is not a disease that’s been in my family or my close circle,’ said the Livingston boss. ‘But we used to get dementia patients come into the football club from care homes to take part in a nostalgia club.

‘We would make them their lunch up the stairs and they would look through old football cards.

‘It was fantastic to see people with that disease remembering a lot of historical stuff. Pictures of games ignited their brain. It’s a horrible illness.

‘Personally, I just go with the advice of the people who are a little bit cleverer than myself and do what they tell us to do.

‘I’m more than happy for the experts to make the decisions and I will make sure we follow those decisions.’

A traditionalist, Martindale would not want to see heading removed from the game altogether. But he will do anything the medics say will help safeguard the health of the players under his command.

‘You have got to follow the science and the data behind it all,’ said Martindale. ‘But, at the same time, we have to be really careful that we are not taking heading a football out of the game because it plays a huge part in football.

‘Look at some of your oldfashioned strikers over the years who we have all enjoyed watching. Where did they get the time to practice that art?

‘For any striker, whose qualities include headed goals and getting on the end of crosses, it’s going to be a difficult one to balance. But we have to make every effort to do so.

‘I look at how I’ve always trained my players and there is probably not a lot of heading involved on a weekly basis anyway.

‘We work on set-pieces the day before a game but it’s more positional. It’s not like we’re putting crosses in or asking centre-halves to go and win headers.

‘So, genuinely, there’s very little heading on a weekly basis in training. I’m confident we meet most of the guidelines anyway.’

Campaigners have urged the International Football Board (IFAB) to introduce temporary concussion

substitutes into football, like in rugby. For Martindale (pictured), it is a complex issue and one, again, best left to the specialists. He added: ‘I think we have to make it as safe as possible but how do you tell a player he needs to come off the park when he is telling you and the medical staff he’s OK? Where do you draw the line?

‘Would it be easier to tell the player to come off for a ten-minute check? Potentially. But rugby is a lot more of a stop-start sport than football. Something needs to happen but I don’t know what. These are all things that probably need looked at by FIFA or whoever is dealing with this.

‘We do have to be careful we are not taking away from the entertainment aspect. We wanted VAR — and I still do want VAR — but it has brought a lot of stoppages to the game.

‘We need to maybe be careful when introducing another type of protocol into the game. But I will go with the people who are a bit cleverer than myself and take their advice.’