England hero Sir Bobby Charlton has been diagnosed with dementia.
The 1966 World Cup winner was born in Ashington, Northumberland and starred for Manchester United between 1956–1973, winning three first division titles and a European Cup.
Charlton's wife, Lady Norma Charlton, has disclosed the information to The Telegraph, with the news coming on the back of Nobby Stiles' death last week. Stiles was also diagnosed with dementia in later life.
The news should lead to more calls for answers into the impact of heading a ball in football and dementia, with former Newcastle United star turned Match of the Day pundit Alan Shearer calling for more information following Stiles' death.
Shearer previously led a dementia and football documentary and spoke to Stiles and his family before his passing.
He explained on BBC Radio 5 Live Sport yesterday: "We'd spoken to the family when we did the documentary. As you can imagine, they were pretty angry in terms of lack of answers and the research has started.
"There's about six months left of funding then there are serious questions about where it goes from there. That needs to be answered because there's no way it can be stopped, there are too many families who need those answers.
"There are too many families that are being left alone and are unable to fund what they need to. There's still work to be done and hopefully that will continue to happen."
