CAMPAIGNERS have welcomed English football’s new heading guidance as an important step on the road to reduce the risk of brain injuries in the sport.

All professional, amateur and grassroots clubs will be issued with advice from this season, centring on limiting the amount of times players head the ball in training.

It follows a report from the government’s digital, culture, media and sport (DCMS) select committee that slammed a ‘long-term failure’ to properly address brain injuries in football.

Read also: 'Football must act now to limit dementia risk'

The guidance has been backed by the family of John Shuker, who made a club-record 478 Football League appearances for Oxford United.

The U’s legend died aged 77 in December 2019, three years after being diagnosed with vascular dementia and Alzheimer’s which relatives suspected was linked to his career.

Just last month, Shuker’s daughter Hannah called for football’s governing bodies to better protect players and she hopes the new guidance is just the beginning.

She said: “As campaigners for dementia in football it’s welcome, but it comes with a lot of trepidation.

“It’s a start, and that’s the main thing.

“People need to understand that every time you head the ball it breaks up the structures in the brain.”

The advice directs professional clubs to limit ‘high force’ headers – those following a long pass of more than 35 metres or crosses, corners and free-kicks – to ten per training week.

Meanwhile, amateur clubs are advised to limit heading practice to one session per week and no more than ten headers per session, with players monitoring themselves.

Guidelines for youth football were announced in February 2020 and remain in place.

Governing bodies will expand their research this season and formally review the guidance next June, but Shuker already knows more can be done.

She added: “There’s a worry that it’s focused on the high-force heading.

“Even repeated low-impact heading is equally concerning.

“It’s a ticking time bomb, you can’t ignore what the (DCMS) report says.

“I still don’t believe there will be someone at professional training sessions monitoring how many times someone heads the ball.

“There needs to be safeguarding in place so other families don’t go through this.

“It’s just guidance, and if the players of this generation don’t take it seriously then who will?”

John Shuker played for United from 1960 and 1977 and there have long been concerns for footballers from his era.

Ex-England striker Jeff Astle died aged 59 in 2002 from an ‘industrial injury’ that was described by a coroner as ‘entirely consistent with heading a ball’.

Hi daughter Dawn, co-founder of the Jeff Astle Foundation, told talkSPORT: “The industrial injuries panel must accept that dementia in football is an industrial disease.

“Football must put in place a pot of money or a trust fund to look after the players now who are suffering from dementia or neurological diseases. It was their job.

“Our footballers are five times more likely to die of Alzheimer’s, four times more likely to die of motor neurone disease and twice as likely to die of Parkinson’s.”