Gary Lineker's health admission and what he fears - 'Odds suggest it probably will'

Gary Lineker's health admission and what he fears - 'Odds suggest it probably will' Newspoint | 01/03/2025 03:39:10

Match of the Day star has previously opened up about his health fears – and the one he fears most is the prospect of developing dementia.

The former forward has never shied away from discussing his health worries, and he's particularly vigilant following a scare with prostate cancer in 2020. Lineker, who is stepping down as the host of BBC's this summer, also revealed he attends frequent health checks.

He also gave up due to his battle with . But it was during his time on the football pitch that Lineker grew concerned about the effects of the game on his body – especially his brain. He used to steer clear of training sessions that required heading the ball, long before the dangers were widely recognised.

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Lineker even believes that the "odds" suggest the disease could impact him eventually.

Recent research indicates that ex-are at a 50 per cent higher risk of dementia compared to others, as reported by Sweden's Karolinska Institutet.

In an interview with The Sun in 2022, Lineker said: "Any footballer should be apprehensive [about headers] and I don't mind admitting that I am. I headed the ball a lot as a kid – and when I was 20, 21, I made a conscious decision not to do it in training.

"We'd get wet, heavy balls in the winter months – we didn't get new balls every week like they do now – and it was something I was concerned about, as I was a player who scored a lot of headers."

, who netted 331 goals for club and country of which 32 were headers, also said: "I've had conversations with Alan Shearer and Ian Wright and others about the worry that, come 10, 15 years, that it [dementia] might happen to one of us.

The odds suggest that it probably will."

Back in 2022, he said (via ): "I'll have my triannual test this summer and ask if there's anything they can establish around the brain, because I don't see how, given the circumstances, any footballer wouldn't be worried about it. It's a worry. I don't mind admitting that it concerns me. There's no question there's a link."

The football has seen several stars succumb to brain diseases, including 1966 World Cup legend Nobby Stiles, who passed away from dementia at 78. Parkinson's disease is another condition that has affected Lineker's family with his grandfather, also a footballer, developing the disease.

"My grandfather was in the army but a very good footballer, too," Lineker told the Daily Mail. "He was in his mid-50s when he developed Parkinson's. We didn't think of why at the time."

But it's not just dementia and Parkinson's that have caused Lineker anxiety. The ex-Everton and forward once feared he had contracted Aids while playing for England in 1988, during a period when the disease was widely feared.

In his 2019 memoir, 'Behind Closed Doors: Life, Laughs and ', Lineker shared the troubling symptoms he experienced back in 1988. "I started to notice something was wrong during the European Championships in the summer of 1988," he said.

"In our second game we played... I felt considerably more ill – heavy-limbed and aching. There didn't seem to be any explanation for it.

"I was also losing weight – about a stone and a half, it would eventually emerge. I quietly wondered if I had Aids. I managed to frighten myself with the thought."

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