Jeffrey Astle was an English professional footballer who played the majority of his career as a centre-forward for West Bromwich Albion.
12 Facts About Jeff Astle
2.
Jeff Astle scored 174 goals in 361 games for the Baggies, including the only goal in the 1968 FA Cup Final, in which he completed the feat of scoring in every round of the competition that season.
3.
Jeff Astle had already scored in the first leg of the 1966 League Cup Final four years previously, but that was at West Ham United's Upton Park.
4.
Jeff Astle won the fourth of his five caps, as a substitute, when England were a goal down against eventual champions Brazil.
5.
Jeff Astle's career ended with a brief spell at the English non-league side Dunstable Town, where he teamed up with former Manchester United star George Best.
6.
Jeff Astle made television comedy appearances with Frank Skinner and David Baddiel on Fantasy Football League.
7.
On 19 January 2002, Jeff Astle choked to death at his daughter's home, aged 59.
8.
Consultant neuropathologist Dr Derek Robson told an inquest that Jeff Astle had had a brain condition which was likely to have been exacerbated by heading a football and he found considerable evidence of trauma, similar to that found in boxers' brains.
9.
Jeff Astle had been described as an "exceptional" header of the ball, and the coroner found that the repeated minor traumas had been the cause of his death, as the leather footballs used in Jeff Astle's playing days were considerably heavier than the plastic ones used later, especially when wet.
10.
In 2014, the Justice for Jeff Astle campaign was launched, calling for an independent inquiry into a possible link between degenerative brain disease and heading footballs.
11.
Subsequently, Jeff Astle was confirmed as the first British footballer known to have died as a result of heading a football.
12.
Jeff Astle was voted as one of Albion's five "FA Cup heroes", receiving the most votes for a striker in the poll organised by the club's official website in 2006.