The Manchester United great, Sir Bobby Charlton has been diagnosed with dementia according to his wife Norma.
The news comes less than a week after Charlton's world Cup-winning teammate Nobby Stiles also passed away having suffered the illness.
His brother Jack, the former manager of the Republic of Ireland who died aged 85 in July, had also suffered with the disease in his later life.
Lady Norma confirmed the sad news to The Telegraph, hoping that revealing the diagnosis 'could help others'.
Bobby Charlton was a 1966 World Cup winner, he held England’s goalscoring record of 49 for close to 50 years until it was broken by Wayne Rooney. The same man would take his Manchester United record when he passed the 249 goals he scored for the Red Devils.
With two high profile cases in a week, the subject of players from the 1960s contracting dementia and Alzheimers will again come to the fore.
Chris Sutton told OTB about his anger about a lack of official action on the subject, given the suffering of his father from the disease.
7 of England's starting XI from 1966 World Cup final have now died. RIP Nobby.
4 of 7, including Nobby, or 57%, have died with
Alzheimer's / dementia.
General population c.13% die of these.
'Old school' football & dementia: still a story unknown.— Nick Harris (@sportingintel) October 30, 2020
A Glasgow Study has shown a clear link between playing football and dementia and the numbers from the 1966 team alone are stark.
John Giles has unfortunately spoken on his own fears of contracting the condition while Alan Shearer made a BBC documentary on the link between heading the ball and dementia.
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