--- title: Are Headers Safe: Soccer's Most Dangerous Move Causes Concussions description: Player-to-player contact caused the majority of concussions. Headers were the most dangerous individual soccer-specifc move. canonical: https://time.com/3955389/soccer-concussions-header/ author: Justin Worland article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-07-13T16:26:16.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:58:35.348Z article:section: Health og:title: Are Headers Safe: Soccer's Most Dangerous Move Causes Concussions og:description: Player-to-player contact caused the majority of concussions. Headers were the most dangerous individual soccer-specifc move. og:url: https://time.com/3955389/soccer-concussions-header/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc4035be028f34103/69885aa35f570f71a8b1c6c2/soccer-header.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3570 og:image:height: 2008 og:image:alt: soccer header og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Are Headers Safe: Soccer's Most Dangerous Move Causes Concussions twitter:description: Player-to-player contact caused the majority of concussions. Headers were the most dangerous individual soccer-specifc move. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc4035be028f34103/69885aa35f570f71a8b1c6c2/soccer-header.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # This Soccer Move Is Causing Concussions In Kids > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=a8bca023-f9c1-458a-b2d2-1326232b9107&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Meet the 23: USA Women's World Cup team [Watch (HLS stream): Meet the 23: USA Women's World Cup team](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/zOigpe7t.m3u8) (1:37)  _Published 2015-06-02. Meet the 23 players representing the United States in the 2015 Women's World Cup._  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Jul 13, 2015 4:26 PM UTC  Soccer player Soccer player Getty Images  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Jul 13, 2015 4:26 PM UTC Health researchers and soccer moms have known for years that more concussions occur in high school soccer than in any other sport except for football. Now, a new [study](http://archpedi.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?doi=10.1001/jamapediatrics.2015.1062) in the journal _JAMA Pediatrics_ details exactly how soccer players are getting those head injuries. Player-to-player contact caused the majority of concussions. But headers, which require players to redirect the ball with their head, were the most dangerous individual move, responsible for nearly a third of concussions for boys and more than a quarter for girls. The researchers used data collected between 2005 to 2014 from a sample of representative high schools in the United States to estimate total soccer concussion numbers across the nation. Overall, headers led to more than 74,000 estimated concussions in boys’ soccer and nearly 87,000 in girls’ soccer during that nine-year period. That’s a rate of 4.5 concussions per every 10,000 times a player played in practice or competition for girls and 1.6 concussions per 10,000 exposures for boys. **Read More:** [Even More Bad News For Young Football Players](http://time.com/3686088/youth-football-brain-function/) Despite their findings, the researchers behind the study don’t think the header should disappear from the game. Instead, concerned parents and youth sports governing bodies should focus on ways to reduce dangerous player-to-player contact, where most concussions occur, said Colorado School of Public Health researcher Dawn Comstock, one of the study’s authors. “Banning heading would reduce some concussions without a doubt, perhaps as many as 30% of the concussions,” she says. “However, our study clearly showed that we could help many more kids if soccer would rein in the rough play.” That could have benefits for the thousands of children who are involved in the sport, given the surge in popularity of high school soccer in recent decades. In 1969, barely 2,200 U.S. high school fielded soccer teams. Today, that number has grown to more than 11,000\. And as the sport’s popularity has grown, so have concerns over safety. Leading professional players, for example, have [called](http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/chastain/) for a ban on headers for children under the age of 14. Still, soccer remains much less dangerous than football when it comes to head injuries. Football causes a total of more than 40% of total high school sports concussions in the U.S., according to previous [research](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2140075/) published in the _Journal of Athletic Training_. Plus, notes Comstock, there are other benefits to playing sports, as along as parents and school officials work to make participation safer. “Sports is a wonderful way for kids to incorporate physical activity,” she said. “We just want to keep kids as safe as possible while they’re playing their sports.” ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] With every year, the women's game grows so exponentially. We want to be the best. We want to say that we're the best. And now it's about getting it done. I've played with a lot of great players. I've played on a lot of incredible teams. Each team has their own story. We haven't won since 1999. So I think it's very important for us and we want to bring that home to the US. We've got tremendous players and many of them do feel that not having a World Cup on their resume is the missing piece. If you've ever played with me, you know that when World Cups and Olympics happen, I will do whatever it After seeing my third world cup, I'm a veteran. I'm a leader. And just try to carry it around on my shoulders. For us, I think its, we can do anything on the field. I think that all of our assets, if we put them together, and we put our best foot forward we're going to be the number one team in the world. And that's the ultimate goal for this team. We want to win, we want to bring the world cup back to the U. S. It's all I can think about, it's all I want. Let's hope I get it, so I can be happy for the rest of my life The quality that this team has brought the last ten, fifteen years, we're deserving of a World Cup, being so close last time around, there's no looking back now This is it for us, and especially a couple of the veterans who noticed [ INAUDIBLE ]. 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