'My husband played for Manchester United and we should be looking forward to the rest of our lives together, instead I'm mourning him'

The widow of an ex-Manchester United player who died from dementia is calling for a ban on heading footballs.

Frank Kopel died in 2014 aged 65 from the condition which his widow, Amanda, believes was due to brain trauma caused by repeated collisions with other players' heads while attempting to head the ball during matches, and heading the ball thousands of times during decades of training.

His widow, Amanda Kopel, believes his diagnosis was due to brain trauma caused by repeated collisions with other players' heads while attempting to head the ball during matches, and heading the ball thousands of times during decades of training.

The couple married in 1969 and lived together in Kirriemuir, Angus, Scotland. Frank played for Manchester Unoted from 1966-69 after signing for the club as a schoolboy in 1964, before his career saw him play for Dundee United, Blackburn Rovers, and Arbroath and Forfar Athletic.. But Mr Kopel was diagnosed with dementia in 2008 and died on April 16, 2014.

Mrs Kopel collaborated with lobby group Heading Out, founded by ex-journalist Mike Edwards, who gave up his career at STV to care for his mother when she was diagnosed with dementia, and who is calling for an end to heading the ball by 2030.

The organisation cited findings of an academic study which revealed that footballers are three-and-a-half times more likely to receive a diagnosis of a neuropathological disease like dementia, and five times more likely if they were a defender.

Mother-of-one Mrs Kopel successfully campaigned for Frank's Law, which was introduced in Scotland in 2019, extending free personal care to under-65s.

Now, on what should have been his 75th birthday, Mrs Kopel said: "Frankie and I should be celebrating today and