Dr Willie Stewart, the specialist brain doctor whose landmark research has proven the link between professional football and dementia, has outlined his frustration at the ongoing failure of the game’s leading governing bodies to mitigate risks for current and future generations.

It is now five weeks since the Glasgow neuropathologist, Dr Stewart, presented unequivocal evidence that former professional footballers were significantly more likely to die from neurodegenerative disease.

At the time, the Football Association said their medical and advisory group had concluded that there was insufficient evidence to make changes to how football is played.

Dr Stewart, who sits on the medical and advisory group, said that “we have a long way to go before we have a consensus view - a credible view - on what happens next” and that “not enough evidence is not the same as nothing is happening and nothing needs to be done”.

Dr Stewart is advocating a review of heading in children’s football, including its removal at youngest ages, unified concussion protocols that would include temporary substitutions, restrictions in heading practice and, likening the situation to the shipbuilders and asbestos, a properly funded care scheme for the many former footballers living with dementia.