Heading the ball killed England striker Jeff Astle

The skill that made Jeff Astle an international footballer caused his premature death by industrial injury, an inquest ruled yesterday.

His ability to head the heavy leather ball powerfully into the net or delicately to team-mates was feared by opponents. Astle described his prowess as "like heading a bag of bricks", not realising the harm he was inflicting on himself.

Astle was 59 when he died in January. West Bromwich Albion supporters commemorate him as "The King" for the left- footed drive with which he won the FA Cup in 1968. He also gained five England caps, being best remembered, unfortunately, for scuffing his shot when the Brazil goal was at his mercy in the 1970 World Cup. But his aerial ability was what made him famed.

His family detected the damage to his brain first, noting a change in his jovial personality five years ago, when he started to develop eating and behavioural disorders.

His widow, Laraine, said yesterday: "Jeff's health slowly deteriorated. He underwent a brain scan last year and it revealed he had suffered an injury to the front of his brain.

"That would be the same part of his head that he used for heading the ball during his playing career. He was known throughout the game as one of the hardest headers of a ball, and that was when it was made of leather." Mrs Astle said her husband became restless and agitated, eventually failing to recognise his children and grandchildren. He died in hospital in Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire, after collapsing at his daughter's home.

Dr Derek Robson, a consultant neurological pathologist, told the inquest that a scan revealed a brain injury consistent with "repeated minor trauma". He added: "I found considerable evidence of trauma to the brain, similar to that of a boxer. It is unlikely he would have developed this condition so young, or possibly at all, if he had not headed the ball repeatedly."

The South Staffordshire coroner, Andrew Haigh, ruled the cause of death as an "industrial disease", a phrase dramatically at odds with the enduring image of Astle soaring to score and the romantic terms often used to encapsulate his art.

The chief executive of West Bromwich Albion, Brendan Batson, who also represented the Professional Footballers' Association at the hearing, said the family had not yet decided whether they would seek compensation.

When he was a young player at Notts County in the 1950s (having escaped the pit, with what now seems a dark irony, by virtue of his talent), Astle had the best mentor any aspiring centre-forward could have wanted. The manager was Tommy Lawton, a tall, angular, Brylcreemed No 9 who had also played for England. Lawton used to maintain that his headed goals were easier because his colleague, the winger Stanley Matthews, delivered crosses and corners with the laces on the ball facing outwards.

The quip was intended to eulogise Matthews' craft rather than be a serious claim. Yet there was a bleak side to the joke. For the ball that Lawton headed throughout his career – and which did not pass out of use until Astle's playing days were over in the mid-1970s – was heavy and painful enough when thudding against the forehead without the laces compounding his discomfort.

The standard ball that was in use when Astle amassed 168 goals in 450 League games (including the 25 that made him top scorer for 1969-70 in what is now the Premiership) was made of leather. When it rained, it absorbed water, making it even heavier.

At the inquest, the coroner was shown a magazine picture of Astle heading a ball so hard that it seemed to be bursting on impact. The caption read: "He [Astle] must have had a head like iron."

The change in the manufacture of footballs, which ushered in a lighter, synthetic sphere that repelled rather than absorbed water, came too late for the monarch of The Hawthorns.

However, those who saw him watching his beloved Albion or crooning on the television show co-hosted by his fellow devotee Frank Skinner never suspected he had suffered permanent and life-threatening damage.

The Football Association recently launched a programme of research into the effects of repeated heading. But because the work will examine the long-term effects, the results are not expected for several years.

Whatever the findings, they will come too late for the legend characterised in the book A-Z of West Bromwich Albion as "exceptional in the air". Astle's daughter, Dawn, explained that all the family wanted was "justice for Dad", adding poignantly: "At the end of the day, the game he lived for was what killed him."

BRAIN INJURY THE CAUSES

Brain damage is an occupational hazard for footballers, as it is for boxers. Repeated mild blows involved in heading the ball probably do more damage than the occasional clash of heads. The risks were greater in the 1960s, when footballs were made of leather and became 20 per cent heavier when wet. Some of the great names from that era – Joe Mercer, Bob Paisley, Alf Ramsey, Danny Blanchflower, Stan Cullis and Stan Mortensen – suffered dementia later in life.

Neurologists at the Walton Centre on Merseyside have been carrying out research on 500 former players to establish if there is any link between heading footballs and the onset of dementia. The Professional Footballers' Association said it was monitoring 24 young players who will be given tests and brain scans every five years. Research in the Netherlands published in 1998 showed that nearly half of professional footballers suffered some form of brain injury from repeated heading. In 1998, the former Celtic player Billy McPhail lost his legal battle to claim benefits for dementia that he said was caused by heading old-style leather balls.