Is there a link between playing soccer and motor neuron disease?

British neuroscientists are planning to investigate whether playing soccer contributes to the development of motor neurone disease. The move comes after three amateur footballers playing in the same league developed the disease, which normally affects less than one person in every 50,000 each year.
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A possible link between football and MND, which causes paralysis and is ultimately fatal, has been found before. In 2005, Italian researchers reported that professional footballers playing in that country between 1970 and 2001 were more than six times more likely to have developed the condition.

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