Nobby Stiles: Former Man Utd midfielder and England World Cup winner related to best football, rules of inquiry | Football News

Nobby Stiles, who won the World Cup for England in 1966, died of a brain problem caused by playing football repeatedly, the coroner said.

Stiles, a former Manchester United midfielder, died nearly six years ago aged 78 with severe dementia and had played football around 140,000 times during his career, Stockport Coroner’s Court heard at the inquest into his death.

An expert analysis of his brain showed his severe dementia was caused not only by Alzheimer’s disease but also by a condition, chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), linked to head trauma from hitting a football.

Neuro-pathology expert Dr Daniel Du Plessis told the court: “I’m convinced that his handling of the ball has repeatedly caused his CTE.”

Alison Mutch, coroner for South Manchester, asked Dr Du Plessis: “Are you saying that repeatedly kicking the ball is the cause of his CTE?”

“Yes,” replied Dr Du Plessis.

Norbert ‘Nobby’ Stiles, born in Collyhurst, Manchester in 1942, was a hard-hitting defensive midfielder, capped 28 times for England and almost 400 times for Manchester United.

Stiles, who lived in Stretford, south Manchester, died in a care home on October 30, 2020, having been left in custody due to his dementia.

In January 2024 his family revealed that CTE may have contributed to his death and Dr Du Plessis examined brain tissue samples to reach his medical conclusion.

Stiles’ family have been campaigning for football authorities to do more to help former players deal with injuries they say were caused while playing.

Stiles’ son, John, once said that football “killed” his father.

Mr Stiles told the case: “Dad was very humble, he achieved a lot.

“It never really changed him, if you walked into his house you wouldn’t know he was a footballer.

“He was very much a family man, football was left at the door. Family always came first.”

The investigating officer Ms. Mutch said to Mr. Stiles that it is surprising that we are talking about this conversation on a day like this” but the witness said that his father “never spoke, never boasted” about being a World Cup player.

He continued: “He was proud of it but we were always more proud of the father he was than the footballer.”

Mr Stiles told the court his father loved Manchester United and the Busby Babes, joining the club as a 15-year-old schoolboy in 1957.

He said he had watched his father during training and match days and estimated that he hit the ball 40 times a day, five days a week, in his 17-year playing career, calculating a “typical” average of 136,000 heads in total.

And he said the balls when his father played weighed about 16 ounces but were heavier when wet.

He told the court, although modern balls no longer absorb water, research has shown that even a modern ball is 80% of the size of a boxer.

Mr. Stiles said that when his father was in his late 50s and early 60s, his family noticed that he began to forget things and repeat himself.

In 2010 he sold his winnings to pay for his care as his mental problems progressed, leaving him with increasing anxiety and a sense of abandonment.

“To be honest with you, he was scared,” Mr Stiles said of his father.

John Stiles is head of the Football Families for Justice (FFJ) group, which is calling on football authorities to do more for former players.

He is among a number of former footballers and their families who are suing the Football Association, the Football Association of Wales and the English Football League over allegations they were “negligent and breached their duty of care” towards former players.

Lawyers for former players and their families have argued that football organizations knew or should have known that repetitive football in training and games could cause brain damage, and that the risks had been known for decades.

In March this year FA lawyers told the High Court that it was “not scientifically established” that kicking the ball or “occasional” collisions could lead to permanent brain damage.

In January, an inquest into the death of Scotland, Manchester United and Leeds defender Gordon McQueen, aged 70, found that football-fixing was “likely” to have contributed to the brain damage that caused his death.

McQueen was also diagnosed with CTE.

McQueen’s daughter and TV presenter Hayley McQueen said England’s 1966 World Cup-winning team had now been “completely decimated” by the neurodegenerative disease.

The FA sponsored in partnership with the Professional Footballers’ Association, a 2019 study which found that footballers are three and a half times more likely to die from a neurodegenerative disease than age-matched members of the population.

The FA is ending all focus on youth football up to under-11s by 2026.