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England’s 1966 World Cup winner Nobby Stiles died of a brain disease caused by repeated headers in football, a coroner has ruled.
Styles, a former Manchester United midfielder, died of severe dementia aged 78 nearly six years ago and headed the football nearly 140,000 times in his career, Stockport Coroner’s Court heard at the inquest into his death.
Expert analysis of his brain showed that he had severe dementia as a result of Alzheimer’s disease, but not the condition, chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), which is linked to head injuries from hitting the head with a ball.
Neuro-pathology expert Dr Daniel du Plessis told the court: “I’m pretty sure he’s had CTE many times because of his head football.”
South Manchester senior coroner Alison Mutch asked Dr du Plessis: “You’re saying repeatedly heading the ball caused his CTE?”
“Yes,” replied Dr. du Plessis.
Norbert ‘Nobby’ Styles, born in Collyhurst, Manchester in 1942, was a hard-tackling 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, bedridden due to his severe dementia.
In January 2024 his family raised the possibility of CTE as contributing to his death, and Dr du Plessis examined brain tissue samples to reach his medical conclusion.
Styles’ family are campaigning with football authorities to help former players deal with injuries sustained during their playing days.
Stills is believed to have headed a ball nearly 140,000 times in his career
Stiles’ son John previously said football “killed” his father.
Mr Stiles told the hearing: “My dad was very humble, he achieved just so much.
“It never changed him. You’d never know he was a footballer if you went to his house.
“He was very much a family man, football was left at the door. Family was always the first priority.”
Coroner Ms Mutch told Mr Stiles it was “quite amazing we’re having this conversation on a day like this” but the witness said her father “never talked, he never bragged” about winning the World Cup.
He added: “He was proud of it but we’re always more proud of the dad than the footballer.”
Mr Stiles told the court his father loved Manchester United and the Busby Babs, having joined the club as a 15-year-old apprentice in 1957.
Styles won the European Cup with Manchester United in 1968
He said he watched his father during his training and playing days and estimated he headed the ball about 40 times a day, five days a week, calculating a “conservative” estimate of a total of 136,000 headers over a 17-year playing career.
And he said his dad weighed about 16 ounces when he played football but got heavier when he got wet.
Modern balls no longer absorb water, he told the court, with studies showing that even a modern ball’s head is about 80 percent of the impact of a boxer’s punch.
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 she sold her winning medal to pay for her care as her mental struggles progressed, leaving her with increasing anxiety and feelings of doom.
“To be honest with you, he was scared,” Mr. Stiles said of his father.
John Stiles heads the Football Families for Justice (FFJ) group, which is calling on football authorities to do more for former players.
He is among dozens of ex-footballers and their families who have sued the Football Association, the Football Association of Wales and the English Football League alleging “negligence and breach of their duty of care” to former players.
Lawyers for former players and their families previously said soccer organizations knew or should have known that repeatedly heading a ball in training and during matches has the potential to cause brain injuries, and that those risks have been known for decades.
The FA’s lawyers told the High Court in March this year that it was “not established by science” that a ball or an “occasional” hit could cause permanent brain damage.
An inquest into the death of former Scotland, Manchester United and Leeds defender Gordon McQueen at the age of 70 in January found that heading the ball “probably” contributed to the brain injury that caused his death.
McQueen was also diagnosed with CTE.
McQueen’s TV presenter daughter Hayley McQueen said England’s 1966 World Cup-winning team had now been “pretty much wiped out” by the neurodegenerative disease.
A 2019 study, co-funded by the FA with the Professional Footballers’ Association, found footballers were three and a half times more likely to die from neurodegenerative diseases than age-matched members of the general population.
The FA is closing all titles in youth football up to Under-11s by 2026.
