Football pundit has openly discussed his health concerns regarding the long-term effects of heading the ball on health, particularly with worries about developing dementia. The former striker for and has been quite candid about his health issues over time.

Lineker, who will be bidding farewell to his presenting role on BBC's Match of the Day at the end of the season, undergoes regular health screenings following a prostate cancer scare in 2020; he's also had to give up golf due to arthritis. His fears about the impact of football on his body, especially his brain, started during his playing days, leading him to avoid drills involving headers whenever possible.

Before wider recognition of the link between football and neurological diseases was established, Lineker already had deep fears. Current research, including studies conducted by the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, indicates that ex-footballers are at a 50 percent increased risk of dementia compared to the general population.

In a 2022 conversation with The Sun, Lineker expressed his unease: "Any footballer should be apprehensive [about headers] and I don't mind admitting that I am. I headed the ball a lot as a kid - and when I was 20, 21, I made a conscious decision not to do it in training."

He also recalled the challenges of playing in colder months: "We'd get wet, heavy balls in the winter months - we didn't get new balls every week like they do now - and it was something I was concerned about, as I was a player who scored a lot of headers."

Having netted 331 goals at both club and international levels, with 32 of those coming from headers, Lineker expressed his concern about the potential long-term effects of heading the ball. He revealed that he has discussed the issue with fellow football personalities and , sharing a collective worry that they might succumb to dementia in the future due to the physical demands of the sport.

"I've had conversations with Alan Shearer and Ian Wright and others about the worry that, come 10, 15 years, that it [dementia] might happen to one of us. The odds suggest that it probably will," he said.

In a 2022 interview, Lineker openly discussed his concerns, stating, "I'll have my triannual test this summer and ask if there's anything they can establish around the brain, because I don't see how, given the circumstances, any footballer wouldn't be worried about it. It's a worry. I don't mind admitting that it concerns me. There's no question there's a link."

His worries are fuelled by the high number of renowned footballers who have passed away due to brain-related illnesses, including Nobby Stiles, a 1966 World Cup winner who died of dementia at 78.

Lineker also shared a personal connection to neurological diseases, mentioning that his grandfather, a skilled footballer and army veteran, succumbed to Parkinson's disease in his mid-50s. "My grandfather was in the army but a very good footballer, too," Lineker told the Daily Mail. "He was in his mid-50s when he developed Parkinson's. We didn't think of why at the time."

In addition to dementia and Parkinson's, Lineker has had scares with other serious health issues. During his time playing for England in 1988, he experienced a harrowing scare when he believed he might have contracted AIDS, a condition that was particularly feared at the time.

Lineker shared a deeply personal health scare from his playing days in his 2019 memoir, 'Behind Closed Doors: Life, Laughs and Football'. He recalled the troubling symptoms he experienced during a major football tournament, revealing: "I started to notice something was wrong during the European Championships in the summer of 1988," and added, "In our second game we played... I felt considerably more ill - heavy-limbed and aching. There didn't seem to be any explanation for it."

The football legend also spoke about his alarming weight loss at the time, concluding: "I was also losing weight - about a stone and a half, it would eventually emerge. I quietly wondered if I had Aids. I managed to frighten myself with the thought."

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