West Brom to underline head injuries with
Astle retro kit
West
Bromwich Albion will participate in a 1968 retro kit in the Premier League game
against Leicester
City
The Premier League
have granted permission for the club to wear the same white strip with red
socks that West Brom wore in the 1968 FA Cup final when Astle's goal beat
Everton.
Astle died in 2002,
aged 59, from Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) -- a progressive
degenerative disease commonly associated with boxers and which was once
referred to as being "punch drunk".
Albion will wear the
kit, numbered from two to 11 with no branding, to mark the launch of the Jeff
Astle Foundation, set up to raise awareness of brain injuries in sport and
offer support to sufferers.
The kit will then be
auctioned off to raise money.
"There is a need
to support the research required to understand more about the issues the Astle
family have fought so hard to raise," West Brom chairman Jeremy Peace
said.
"I hope that on
April 11, Jeff's old club will be seen to be honouring a promise and helping
them. He would have wanted that."
Astle, idolised by
West Brom fans, made his debut against Leicester
and played for the club for 10 years from 1964-74.
The subject of
concussion in exercise has been in the attention recently with several high-status
incidents through the recent Six Nations rugby challenge while former F1 world
champion Fernando Alonso suffered concussion after a crash in testing.
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