Researchers at Loughborough University have used pressure sensors to test the impact of different footballs on a player’s brain during a header.
Their study has identified a previously unreported mechanism of energy transfer to the brain from football headers – a finding that could prove significant in understanding the mechanics of headers and inform future research into long-term player health.
The testing process
The testing process saw the researchers throwing a range of footballs from the last century at an advanced dummy head model, at match speeds. Using a specialist pressure sensor positioned within the brain model they observed, for the first time, a distinctive pressure wave that transfers energy into the frontal region. The magnitude of this energy transfer varied by up to 55x across historical and modern ball types.
Professor Andy Harland, Professor of Sports Technology, Loughborough University said: “Having studied football impacts for two decades, I am pleased we have been able to find evidence of this pressure wave and quantify the energy that is being transferred into the brain during each header. There is still much work to do before we fully understand what this means for brain health, but this research allows us to provide a much more detailed description of how energy is transferred during heading.”
Lead researcher Dr Ieuan Phillips said: “These findings provide opportunities to work towards ball designs and testing specifications that minimise energy transfer into the brain. We look forward to collaborating with all stakeholders interested in taking this forward.”
Legal and medical scrutiny
The findings come at a time where there is growing scrutiny of heading’s long-term impact on players’ health.
In January 2026, a senior coroner ruled that repetitive head impacts sustained by former Scotland, Manchester United, and Leeds defender Gordon McQueen while heading footballs had likely contributed to the chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) found in his brain after his death in 2023, aged 70.
McQueen’s brain was examined by Professor Willie Stewart, a consultant neuropathologist at Queen Elizabeth University Hospital Glasgow, who confirmed evidence of both CTE and vascular dementia.
That individual case sits on top of a broader epidemiological picture: a 2019 study found ex-footballers were 3.5 times more likely to die from dementia or other neurodegenerative diseases than matched members of the public, while earlier research in Scotland found former players faced a fivefold greater risk of neurodegenerative disease.
CTE can currently only be confirmed through post-mortem examination, which is part of what makes the Loughborough team’s work significant – rather than relying solely on outcomes recorded decades later, it aims to characterise the physical mechanism of harm at the moment of impact, opening a route toward addressing risk through ball design rather than after the fact.
FA Chief Medical Officer, Charlotte Cowie, said: “We’re pleased to have funded Loughborough University’s study into the potential effects of pressure waves in footballs. This new independent research provides us with innovative and previously undiscovered insight – and it is part of our ongoing commitment to gain a greater understanding of this highly complex area.”
The results of the study have also been shared with FIFA and UEFA.
World Cup 2026
The findings arrive at a critical moment for the sport. With the FIFA World Cup 2026 reaching its climax this week, a global audience of hundreds of millions will watch elite players heading balls under the exact match conditions Loughborough’s researchers set out to replicate.
The tournament is also the first to use FIFA’s latest generation of Law 2-compliant match balls across all 104 games, underlining why Phillips and Harland are keen to see ball manufacturers and governing bodies engage directly with their findings.
