DIE FOR THE CAUSE

Last updated : 14 November 2002 By Editor
They should have used a 'penny-floater' instead of a medicine ball

Former United centre half and captain Charlie Roberts died in 1939 at the
age of 56 in Manchester Royal Infirmary after an operation on his skull. He
had been suffering from dizzy spells.

The former West Bromwich Albion centre forward was 59 when he died in
hospital last January, after collapsing at his daughter's home.

Today, Charlie's grandson, Ted, said: "He's got to be one of the first
people to die from heading the ball in that era.

"Football came into its own in the 1890s and 1900s, so it would have been in
the 1930s that former players would have been suffering the effects of these
injuries.

"Heading a ball was like heading a brick in those days and my grandfather
and the family always believed that his dizzy spells were caused by heading
the ball. He went into hospital for the operation, but then he never came
round after the anaesthetic."

Charlie was transferred to United from Grimsby Town in 1904 for £600 and
during his captaincy United won the FA Cup and the league championship
twice.