AFL legend Gary Ablett Sr reveals his football career has left him with significant brain damage

Soccer star Gary Ablett Sr. has revealed he has “significant brain damage” from his illustrious 248-game career.

Ablett, 61, said he had experienced “headaches and skull pressure” since 2010, which then progressed to migraines, insomnia, blurred vision, significant memory loss, anxiety, fatigue and major depression.

After the media highlighted multiple cases of brain damage in former AFL players, Ablett underwent an MEG scan in November to find out exactly what was wrong with him.

The scans revealed that he had suffered “significant structural and functional brain damage.”

AFL legend Gary Ablett Sr (pictured) has revealed he has significant brain damage and severe depression and memory loss as a result of his illustrious 248-game career

Ablett, 61, revealed that in 2010 he had “headaches and skull pressure” that progressed to migraines, insomnia, blurred vision, significant memory loss, anxiety, fatigue and major depression (Ablett pictured second from left).

The AFL legend told the Herald Sun he went for CTE scans so he could at least identify the causes of his chronic headaches and fatigue.

“Starting in 2015 and almost every day there were signs that things had changed, then about 12 months ago I started getting symptoms that alarmed me enough that I contacted Peter Jess who I know has a concussion condition used a number of previous players,” Ablett said.

“I shared my concerns with him and Peter helped organize an MEG scan that the American military uses. I turned out to have significant structural and functional brain damage.’

Ablett has been seeing a psychiatrist once a month since then and is being treated medically for his headaches and depression.

The AFL legend, who scored 1,025 goals for Geelong between 1984 and 1996, has been unable to work in recent months and has turned to the AFL Players Association for financial help.

Following media attention to numerous cases of brain damage in former athletes, Ablett underwent an MEG scan in November, which revealed “significant structural and functional brain damage.”

He says he approached them four months ago and they started avoiding him and he hasn’t heard from him since.

“I feel like I’ve made a significant contribution to the game in 16 years of VFL and AFL football, so it seems I’m not the only one with memory issues,” Ablett said.

“And while I certainly don’t want to discredit the game or damage the image of the game, I really want to raise awareness of these issues and other players who may be experiencing the same issues.

While Ablett acknowledges that the AFL has taken significant steps to minimize headbutts in the modern game, he says headbutts were far more common when he played.

Ablett estimates he was knocked unconscious eight to 10 times during his career and had other signs of concussion on several occasions, including ringing in his ears and feeling “lost.”

Former Ablett manager Peter Jess has been at the forefront of changing headknocks in the AFL.

He says the AFL’s lack of support for Ablett shows the need for a separate unit to be put in place to oversee past and current players getting the medical care they need.

The AFL legend, who scored 1,025 goals for Geelong between 1984 and 1996, has been out of work for the last few months and has approached the AFL Players Association for financial help but has received no response (Gary Ablett was being attended to by medical staff).

Ablett’s former manager believes the AFL should pay for the brain scans of retired players like Ablett.

“We clearly need to give AFL oversight of health and welfare to an independent panel of brain trauma experts to address a national sports crisis,” Jess said.

“The AFL is good at hosting the game but terrible at caring about the welfare of their past and current players, which is no better demonstrated than wasting $25 million on a retrospective study where everyone knew what the outcome would be if you played football you are a chance of brain damage.’

The AFL Players Association has so far declined to discuss specific cases.

Source: | This article originally belongs to Dailymail.co.uk